|  Quadrophenia's a great album (the film's good too apparently but I haven't seen it yet) - the plot's more real that Tommy, instead of being fantasy it's connected to British social history and adolescent confusion and anger.
It's sort of a tribute to the kids/teenagers who'd been fans/followers of the band in their earlier days, and a look back to their past especially their Mod connections.
The album's the story (told as flashback) of a kid called Jimmy (I've got a copy of the origanal album on vinyl - I'm not sure if the cd issues had/have the origanal short story and photographs explaining/illustrating the plot)
He's/was a mod, followed the gang & took part in some of the fights/riots, took the pills, drunk the booze and acted tough with/in front of his mates, while secretly not wanting to have to constantly change how he looks and thinks just to fit in with the crowd and hating the monster he becomes when he's drunk.
His parent's are judgemental and hypocritical (in his eyes) & accuse him of not caring about anything but he doesn't want to fight them despite that being what his friends and peers are expecting. They and him think he's mentally ill because of his mood swings, confusion about girls, and anger about the state of the world - greed, 'straight society', racism, oppression of workers who just allow it to happen... the title come's from his dad deciding he must be schizophrenic and Jimmy thinking "schizophrenic, I'm bl---y quadrophenic' (quad being a 70s attempt at going from stereo - two speakers to four, & schizophrenia used to be confused with bipolar/manic depression - people thought it meant going going between two extremes)
They discovers his drugs (after suspecting his involvement in one of the big events that made the news for it's violence) and kick him out of the house.
Jimmy decides to travel back to Brighton, (while tripping on his pills) and remembers parts of his life so far, working, what it was like being part of the crowd, following the scene, dating & dancing and watching the leader "the ace face" smash up a hotel. He spends a brief bit of time sleeping rough, re visits some old haunts - discovers his best friend and his girl are now an item (and they both ignore him, just like most of the people there), the band he sort of knew once have moved too far away from the fans while still claiming to be on their side and the leader he used to follow and looked up to is now part of the system, working for that very same hotel as a Bell Boy & claiming to have 'seen the light' and grown up while secretly hating his job and having to keep quiet and run after the guests.
He ends up being completely disillusioned , loses faith in everything he's believed in or been taught to believe in, nearly drowns himself (trying to find 'cleansing' from the sea), borows/hires a boat, gets completely out of it on pills and booze, ends up stranded on a rock/small island, throws his scooter into the water and
ends up havening a possible spirutal reverlation/healing in the rain.
The whole album is him having a 'life flashing before his eyes' moment at that point and it's left open as to if he dies or is rescued and if so what his future holds.
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