Set against the unforgiving landscape of blizzard-swept Colorado, Too Cool begins with the squeal of tires and adrenaline rush of a high-speed car chase. Elbert Earl Evans, known as Triple E, sixteen years old, has busted out of reform school and taken off with his girlfriend, Jeanne Windriver, in a stolen Oldsmobile. Pursued by police, Triple E and Jeanne escape by turning onto a backwoods road, where the car eventually stalls, trapping the two youngsters miles from civilization in a deadly snowstorm.

Faced with a situation of growing desperation, Triple E confronts the violence in his nature - from his street skirmishes to the betrayal suffered at the hands of reform-school teachers who put their own dreams of glory ahead of his rehabilitation.