In a Southern California beach community on the last day of school before summer vacation at Ocean Front High School, physical education teacher Freddy Shoop prepares to leave for Hawaii with his girl friend, Kim. Mr. Dearadorian, the teacher who was scheduled to teach the remedial English class during summer school, wins $50,000 in the lottery and abruptly quits. Vice Principal Phil Gills tries to find a replacement, but all the teachers avoid him. Gills corners Freddy Shoop and blackmails him into teaching the class, reminding him he will be up for tenure next year. On the first day of summer school, Shoop meets history teacher Robin Bishop, who teaches in the classroom beside him. Shoop falls for Robin and asks her out for dinner, but learns she is dating Vice Principal Gills. The nine students in Shoop’s remedial English class all failed a mandatory English skills examination, but can retake the test after the summer semester. The students include the easily distracted Pam House, large and intimidating Jerome Watkins, geeky Alan Eakian, pregnant Rhonda Altobello, dyslexic Denise Green, constantly sleepy Larry Kazamias, and football player Kevin Winchester, plus underachievers Dave Frazier and Francis “Chainsaw” Gremp, who are horror movie fans. The first day of class goes badly. Jerome leaves to use the bathroom and never returns, while Pam stares out the window, dreaming of surfing. Shoop cannot control the class and when the students start cursing loudly, disturbing the other classes, Robin Bishop comes in to settle them down. On the second day, Italian exchange student Anna-Maria Mazarelli joins the class, hoping to refresh her English skills before the fall semester begins. Dave and Chainsaw flirt with her, but the rest of the students walk out of class. A security guard brings them back and Shoop admits to the students that he does not want to be there either. Some of the students suggest he take them on field trips. For the next several days, Shoop takes the students to an amusement park, a petting zoo, and the beach. Phil Gills learns of the field trips and suspends Shoop, telling him he will officially be fired once the fall semester begins. All Shoop had to do was “babysit some social deviants,” but he was not capable of doing that simple task, Gills says. Shoop begs for another chance, promising to become a model teacher. Gills responds that if every student in the class passes the English skills test, he will forget about the field trips. The next day, Shoop comes to class in a coat and tie, rather than the shorts and t-shirt he had been wearing. He tells the students they are not as dumb as they have been told and he sincerely wants to help them learn. Alan Eakian suggests that if Shoop does each of them a “favor,” they will study hard. So after class, Shoop helps Denise with driving lessons, serves as a Lamaze coach for pregnant Rhonda, gives Kevin tips for his football practice, and gets a cot for Larry so he can sleep during class. For their “favor,” Dave and Chainsaw request a party, so Shoop throws one at his beachfront cottage on the Fourth of July. There, Pam House flirts with him, but Shoop tells her he already has a girl friend. However, Dave and Chainsaw light a firecracker and accidently set Shoop’s sofa on fire, so the party ends early. The next day, police catch Dave and Chainsaw drinking a bottle of vodka on the beach. Shoop returns from roller skating and tells police the alcohol was his. Police arrest him for contributing to the delinquency of minors. Shoop telephones Robin Bishop for bail money, so she and Phil Gills bail him out before leaving on a romantic weekend in the wine country. Jealous of their romantic getaway, Shoop goes to a club to meet women. However, it is ladies’ night with male strippers. Shoop recognizes one of the strippers as Larry, the student who sleeps through his class. A few days later, Larry shows up to class fully awake, explaining that he lost his job as a stripper when his mother and aunt came into the club and the owners found out he was underage. One night, Pam House shows up at Shoop’s cottage, ready to collect her favor from him. As her brother and his wife just had another child, there is no longer any room for her at their place, so she wants to move in with Shoop. He reluctantly agrees to let her stay until she can find another place. Shoop screens the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in class to fulfill Dave and Chainsaw’s other “favor.” Phil Gills drops by the classroom and is dismayed to see the students are watching it. Over lunch at school, Robin Bishop admits she is not in love with Gills, but still turns down Shoop’s invitation to go to dinner. However, a few days later when Robin stops by Shoop’s cottage to deliver a book, she is jealous to see Pam staying there and fixing dinner for him. Shoop takes his students to the courtroom for his hearing. Dave Frazier tells the judge that he got the vodka with a fake ID and that Shoop had nothing to do with it. The judge dismisses the case, but Gills promises to have Shoop fired. The next day, Shoop wants the students to take a practice test. They protest and demand they renegotiate their deal about studying for the test. Shoop gets angry and tells the students for the past month, his life has been consumed by teaching and doing favors for them. He says he is tired of it and quits. Vice Principal Gills assigns a substitute teacher, Miss Curat, to take over the class, but when she arrives for her first day, the students set up the room to look like a bloody scene out of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Miss Curat quits on the spot and the students demand Gills get Shoop back or they will do something similar with any other substitute he sends. Shoop lounges at the beach with his dog, “Wondermutt,” when the students show up, begging him to come back. He agrees. The students take a practice test and afterward, Shoop lies and tells them they did well. On the day of the actual test, Jerome Watkins, who left for the bathroom six weeks earlier, returns. The test goes smoothly, but halfway through, Rhonda goes into labor. She finishes the test and rushes to the hospital to deliver the baby, which she plans to put up for adoption, believing she is too young to be a mother. When Principal Kelban returns, Phil Gills makes his case to have Shoop fired. However, many of the students’ parents come to speak on Shoop’s behalf, commenting that their children have improved, learned something, and are better people. However, when Gills presents the test scores, he announces that the class average was sixty-three, a failing score. While some of the students passed the test, many failed. However, when Scoop looks at the grades, he sees that every student improved their scores from the previous test. Principal Kelban examines the scores and notes that the class average went from twenty-eight on the first test to sixty-three on the latest test, which is a 125 percent improvement. Kelban says that Scoop clearly taught them something and gives him tenure. Shoop and Robin take a walk on the beach. She agrees to have dinner with him. The two kiss as the waves rush over them.