In the summer of 1973, a time of subversive drug culture and changing social roles, fifteen-year-old Joe Beck lives in a small Canadian city near the U.S. border where he watches dark-suited politicians lie on TV during something called Watergate. So when his best friend Brian goes missing, Joe has a hard time believing that adults ever tell the truth. Joe knows that if Brian is going to be found, it's up to him. Eventually, he launches his own investigation, using a tape recorder - just like the American president - to help sift through the clues with the help of his older brother and their DJ stoner friend. With the unflinching honesty of a teenager?s-eye view, Joe embarks on a perilous and enlightening journey to decipher a mental institution diary full of secrets about a drug called LSD, uncover the truth about Brian's father, and save his best friend.