After scoring the winning touchdown in the 1956 Sugar Bowl, Louisiana State University Tigers football player Gavin Grey is celebrated as a local hero and earns the moniker “The Grey Ghost.” At the beginning of his senior season, Gavin asks his studious nephew, Donnie “Cake” McCaslin, to escort his girl friend, Babs Rogers, to the first game. Cake complies, and is instantly smitten with the aspiring pageant queen’s beauty and charm. Although in awe of Gavin’s popularity, Cake is warmly welcomed into his social circle. One afternoon, Gavin’s teammate, Edward Lawrence, introduces the boys to his African-American friend, Narvel Blue, a former high school football star now working in a barbecue restaurant. Impressed by “The Grey Ghost’s” reputation, Blue races Gavin in a 100-yard dash. Although the outcome appears to be a tie, Blue graciously concedes victory to Gavin. Sometime later, Babs learns she cannot compete in the Miss Louisiana and Miss America beauty pageants unless she postpones her engagement to Gavin for at least two years. Gavin encourages her to follow her dreams, but Babs insists she wants nothing more than to be “Mrs. Gavin Grey.” At the end of another undefeated season, Gavin leads the Tigers to a second consecutive Sugar Bowl victory. He and Babs marry, and soon after, Gavin is drafted by the Washington Redskins. Shocked by the brutality of professional football, Babs suggests Gavin invest his postseason bonus money into starting a fallback business. Sometime later, he and Lawrence open a popular restaurant in Baton Rouge, and Babs becomes pregnant. Gavin offers Narvel Blue a chance to try out for the Redskins, but Blue declines, believing his football days are behind him. Over the next six years, Gavin continues to play for the Redskins and moves into a new house with Babs and their infant son. As the Civil Rights Movement sweeps the nation, Cake sees Blue brutally beaten during a sit-in protest and regrets not doing something to stop it. Tired of running the restaurant alone, Lawrence suggests that he and Cake visit Gavin in Washington, D.C. During their trip, Gavin tells Cake he is lonesome and has not made any close friends since college. The next night, Cake takes Babs dancing for her twenty-ninth birthday. She thanks him for the wonderful evening, but begins to cry over the realization that she does not have much of a life outside her marriage. Determined to lighten the mood, she summons Cake to go skinny-dipping. As he nervously watches her undress, she warns him not to misinterpret the invitation because she is pregnant with her third child. Once the baby is born, Babs exercises to get into shape before presenting an award to the new Miss Magnolia Queen, a title she held back in 1956. Crazed by the sight of his wife in her old ball gown, Gavin whisks her off stage to make love in one of the hotel bedrooms, which results in another pregnancy. One night, three masked men break into the restaurant after hours and murder Lawrence. Assuming the assailants were black, Gavin appeals to Narvel Blue, now a respected civil rights activist and restaurateur, to help find them. While Gavin is away playing football, Blue informs Babs that Lawrence was killed by loan sharks for failing to pay his gambling debts, and that he bankrupted the business. As financial hardship sets in, Babs’s former pageant sponsor, Bolling Kiely, offers to purchase the property if Gavin allows him to use his name to promote it. Because Gavin refuses to be involved, Babs accepts the deal and ends up running the restaurant on his behalf. Although she despises working for Kiely, she realizes she is a talented businesswoman. In the 1970s, Gavin retires from professional football. After accepting a commemorative jersey at a press conference, he turns down dinner plans with Babs and Cake in favor of partying with his former teammates. Returning to the house to pack for their move back to Louisiana, Babs relishes the thought of no longer being just a “player’s wife.” When she jokingly questions Cake about his perpetual bachelorhood, he confesses his lifelong attraction to her and says she has “ruined” him for all other women. Flattered, Babs kisses him, and they make love on the living room floor. The next morning, Cake awakens on the couch to find Babs making breakfast for Gavin, who is still drunk from the night before and does not suspect anything. During retirement, Gavin splits his time playing golf, working as a celebrity spokesman, and appearing at the restaurant, where he regales the patrons with old football stories. However, he quickly grows tired of the charade and accepts an offer to play for the Denver Broncos in Colorado. Refusing to uproot their family, Babs stays behind and gets a job managing Blue’s chicken restaurant, eventually helping him launch a campaign for the state legislature. Meanwhile, Cake accepts that his love for Babs will always be unrequited, and takes a job as a college professor in Pennsylvania. After sustaining several injuries, Gavin realizes he no longer feels fulfilled by the game of football and goes home to Louisiana. In 1981, Cake returns for Gavin and Babs’s twenty-fifth college homecoming reunion and brings his fiancée, Leslie Stone. Gavin asks Cake, an established historical biographer, to write his memoir, in which he hopes to chronicle “what it used to feel like to be a hero.” He confides his suspicion that Babs is having an affair, but Babs denies it. At the reunion, Gavin and the 1956 football team walk onto the field in honor of their historic Sugar Bowl win. Overwhelmed by the memories of his former glory, Gavin rushes out of the stadium. Cake assures his uncle that Babs has always been faithful, but Gavin deduces the truth about their brief affair. At the dinner reception, Gavin gives a speech dedicating his success and happiness to Babs. Cake encourages Babs to join her husband onstage, where she and Gavin kiss in front of a cheering crowd.