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The Paper Chase
At Harvard Law School, James T. Hart attends his first day in a contract law course taught by Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. When Kingsfield immediately delves into the material using the Socratic method, Hart is totally unprepared and is humiliated when Kingsfield asks him the first question. After class, Hart throws up in the bathroom.
Hart is invited to join a study group with five others:
Each member of the group agrees to focus on a specific course and write a synopsis of their notes to share with each other before the final exams. Hart chooses contract law.
While out getting pizza, Hart is asked by a young woman, Susan Fields, to walk her home, as she says she feels uncomfortable about a man who has been following her. Hart returns to her house soon after and asks her on a date, after which they begin a complicated relationship: she resents the time he devotes to his studies and his fascination with Kingsfield, while he expects her to provide him with considerable attention and wants a firm commitment. When Hart and a select few of his classmates are invited to a cocktail party hosted by Kingsfield, he is stunned to discover that Susan is Kingsfield's married daughter. She is, however, separated from her husband and eventually gets a divorce. She and Hart break up and get back together several times.
Hart categorizes his classmates into three groups: those who have given up; those who are trying but fear being called upon in class to respond to Kingsfield's questions; and the "upper echelon" who actively volunteer to answer. Hart strives to move from the second classification to the third, and succeeds as time goes on.
Hart eventually learns of the existence of the "Red Set", the archived and sealed personal notes that Harvard professors wrote when they were students, which are stored in a locked room of the library. Late one night, Hart and Ford break into the library to read Kingsfield's notes.
The mounting pressure gets to everyone as the course nears its end. Brooks attempts suicide and drops out of school. The study group is torn apart by personal bickering, with only three of the six members remaining. With final exams looming, Hart and Ford hole up in a hotel room for three days and study feverishly. On the last day of class, Hart and his classmates give Kingsfield a standing ovation. Later, when Susan brings Hart his mail at the beach, he climbs the highest rock, makes a paper airplane out of the unopened envelope containing his grades and sends it flying into the water.
The film is a faithful adaptation of the novel, although it adds two elements not in the book: Hart's first name and middle initial (James T.), and his final grade in contract law (93, an A).