David Greene is a working-class Jews teenager from Scranton, Pennsylvania, during the 1950s who is given a football scholarship to St. Matthew's, an exclusive Massachusetts prep school, for his senior year due to his grades and ability to play football. Upon his arrival, he meets his teammates Rip Van Kelt, Charlie Dillon, Jack Connors, and his roommate Chris Reece and learns of the school's cherished honor code system. Soon learning that his new friends are antisemitism, he suppresses his background.