Goats follows the journey of Ellis Whitman, a young man who has grown up on an alternative desert homestead with his self-absorbed New Age mother and a goat-trekking, marijuana-growing sage named Goat Man. After years of living this unconventional lifestyle, Ellis decides to attend a stuffy East Coast prep school, leaving his laid-back existence behind.
Once at school, Ellis quickly adapts to the rigid structure and academic demands of the institution, making friends with his quirky roommate and excelling on the track team. However, it's his relationships with the adults in his life that become the real challenge.
Ellis is constantly torn between the conflicting ideologies of his two guardians – his free-spirited mother and the more traditional Goat Man. Meanwhile, his estranged father reappears in his life, forcing Ellis to confront the emotional baggage he's been carrying for years.
As Ellis navigates the complexities of his personal life, he begins to question the validity of his unconventional upbringing. Ultimately, he must strike a balance between the lessons he's learned from Goat Man and the values he discovers in the world beyond his desert homestead.