Though a childhood bout with polio left him dependent on an iron lung, Mark O'Brien maintains a career as a journalist and poet. A writing assignment dealing with sex and the disabled piques Mark's curiosity, and he decides to investigate the possibility of experiencing sex himself. When his overtures toward a caregiver scare her away, he books an appointment with sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene to lose his virginity.

After blowing his chance to play college football by bombing the S.A.T.s, Anferny Fertado joins an underground football league at the drug store of his summer job. He joins the team to win the heart of Jada Thomas, which is the beginning of an interracial relationship, but multiple obstacles such as a rival player Donte Styles, his boss Mr. Deaton, Jada's father, Pops, and the societal pressures of middle class Cincinnati, Ohio, stand in his way.