It's 1970, and the optimism of Trudeaumania is giving way to fears of wage and price controls. In Varnum, Ontario, where the smell of industry is the smell of money, a lot of that money's heading south just like Bobby Orr.The Checkout Girl is the story of Kathy Rausch, whose life these days is something that just seems to happen to her. After sneaking out on her boyfriend in Vancouver, Kathy moves back to Varnum and hides out in a room in the basement of her high school buddy, Penny Lehman. When Kathy isn't checking out groceries, she skates. And when she isn't skating, she's sharing her room with a skittish boa constrictor named Freddy, warding off advances from fellow basement dweller Little Barry Bender, ignoring her well-meaning mother, Connie, hanging out with her best friend, champion baton twirler Darlyn Smola, and dealing a bit of marijuana for Penny's husband Pete. But when Kathy stumbles upon a brutal murder, she is finally driven to put her hockey stick where her heart is: on the ice.