Paul Reis (Beau Bridges) arrives for his new job as gym teacher at the Roman Catholic all-boys boarding school he attended as a youth. It does not take long, however, for Reis to perceive that something strange is going on. An alarming feud is raging between Joe Dobbs (Robert Preston), the likable English teacher, and Jerome Malley (James Mason), the authoritarian Latin teacher. Reis, the outsider, resists getting involved, but it becomes inevitable once the student body erupts into violence.