through flashback scenes, the viewer understands that daisy was raped at the party, a scene witnessed by bud, who did not intervene. daisy asks bud why he did not help her, and his feelings of guilt on this are considerable. he tells her that he did not know what to do, and so he decided to leave the party. after he came back a bit later, he saw an ambulance in front of the house and daisy explains to bud that she is dead, having passed out prior to the rape and then choked to death on her own vomit. bud awakens the next morning, alone; his encounter with daisy turns out to have been a figment of his imagination. the movie ends as bud is driving his truck in california.