Hart (Timothy Bottoms) is a Harvard Law School freshman whose problems are intensified when he falls in love with the daughter (Lindsay Wagner) of a tyrannical professor, played to the hilt by John Houseman. Based on the novel by John Jay Osborn Jr., 'The Paper Chase' follows the progression of a group of freshman struggling to stay afloat in a world of high pressure and immense competition, where top grades seem to be the difference between life and death. Hart is a slightly naive but bright midwesterner who must prove himself in the arena of Professor Kingsfield's (Houseman) brilliant but cruel classroom. Hart becomes obsessed with excelling in Kingsfield's class, pushing himself to the brink until he meets Susan (Wagner) and falls in love with her only to discover that she is Kingsfield's daughter. As Hart becomes more involved with Susan, he begins to question whether he really wants to become part of the system Harvard's preparing him for.