It's been a year now, and the pain Ben Pietrak feels over the way his high school wrestling career ended just won't go away. During an aimless year in college he has an idea; what's to stop him from finding his way back into a high school lineup to atone for his mistake?

First he must overcome an ethical dilemma. After some moral acrobatics he deludes himself into believing he was cheated out of an extra season on the varsity.

Once back in high school he realizes that he has returned to a place of missed opportunities. He resists the self-imposed rigid social order and is rewarded in ways he never expected. Eventually he meets Judy, a student who he would never have had anything to do with the first time in high school. His success on the mat is tempered by a growing realization that his rationalization was flawed, but by then it's too late to turn back.

Ben's moral and romantic difficulties converge with his struggle for wrestling vindication in Atlantic City at the New Jersey Wrestling Championships.

How can he end up with everything he wants: redemption, integrity, and the girl?