KK took the Dust Nuggets rock band from the garage to the stadium and is now in a coma from a drug overdose, reviewing her out-of-control life.
KK Colson overdoses on "G" while swimming in a pool and is led away from the scene in an ambulance. He boyfriend, Q, overdosed as well but falls into the pool and drowns. To escape the facts of Q's death, KK remains in a coma and dreams. She is first confronted by a transgendered nurse/stewardess who sings about "G" and warns her she's got one hour to make up her mind if she'll live or die.
KK continues to dream, starting with memories of her childhood best friend Joanie Shamansky. Joanie and Krissy (as KK was called back then) loved music and often danced to pop music in Krissy's childhood home. One day their school holds auditions for "Annie." They both audition and it is discovered that Joanie is wildly talented, but Krissy is not. Eventually Joanie goes to New York to audition for the lead role in a film about Shirley Temple. Krissy tags along and discovers a book entitled "How to Catapult Your Band to Rock Stardom." She realizes that when Joanie becomes a movie star, this book will be Krissy's chance for success.
She follows the book's advice (told in a "Cat in the Hat" style), and starts a band known as the Dust Nuggets. She auditions Molson on guitar, Olson on sax, and Jolson on drums. While KK dreams of this, visions of reality comprised of scenes of KK and Q as they imbibe "G.," are interjected into the dream. Because Q died, KK feels guilty and spends her dream time trying to not wake up from the coma so she doesn't have to face reality. But reality keeps poking its head in with scenes of the actual Dust Nuggets as they rise to fame following a successful show on a local public access television show. The moment when KK first accepted a dose of "G" from a record label executive is juxtaposed with the dreamscape of the band constantly searching for a bass player which it never finds in her dream because in reality, Q was the bass player, and he has died.
Finally when the Dust Nuggets are just signing the biggest record deal of their career, KK is confronted with her past through the reappearance of a nurse/stewardess who tells her her time is up. She must choose to live or die and enticingly hints that Q might in fact not have died. KK instantly wakes up.
The final scene is a birthday party for Krissy. Joanie shows up late and tells her she is going to New York returning a token of love that Krissy had given Joanie when earlier that year. It was the defining moment of Krissy's childhood where she determined to become as famous as Joanie.
