The Gloucester High Lions football team, for decades one of the premier athletic powerhouses in South Jersey, has fallen on hard times. A mysterious stranger, McGrogan, visits Gloucester right before football practices begin in August and makes a deal with a naive young musician, Steve Oxley, that promises to restore the Lions to their former glory-but may cost Oxley his life and soul. Oxley tries to balance a budding romantic relationship with a moody artist with his newfound stature as the town's football hero. The romance is further complicated by the attention Oxley receives from a...