Depicts sixteen-year-old Billy Dyer as he struggles to join the small-town football team whose tradition of brutal training resembles that of the ancient Spartans. However, in the course of this situation, he discovers that his father has been blackmailed into working with Blake Rainey, the town's most powerful and wealthy man, in a land-acquisition scheme. When Rainey offers Billy a Faustian deal to rejoin the football team, Billy must accept the consequences of his choice.