Spring Awakening is the story of a group of students, children, faculty, and parents in Germany at the turn of the century. The central character, Melchior, is a jaded atheist teenager. The characters undergo the trauma of sexual awakening in various ways. Some have access to sexual education information while others are kept purposefully in the dark by their parents and other authority figures. The play deals with abortion, homosexuality, child abuse, asexuality, and other fixtures of puberty and the effect it has on the teenage mind.