Andrew Morenski and two others, all stockbrokers, have passed bogus bonds for a mobster awaiting trial. After an evening out at a bar, one of them is killed in his home. The next morning, the FBI take the other two into
protective custody. Convincing his FBI bodyguards to have breakfast out of the
safe house, Andrew and the agents are followed by hitmen. Andrew flees the diner after one of his bodyguards is killed and the other is injured. While running from the hitmen, he boards a train, temporarily escaping. Andrew hitches a ride with a truck driver to Topsail, Delaware, where he phones his Aunt Lucy, who tells him to meet her at the local high school where she is the nurse. Shaving his beard and bleaching the sides of his hair blonde, Andrew then trades his $500 Italian sports coat for an overcoat from a bum to complete his disguise. Arriving at Topsail High School, the office personnel mistake him for a new student and register him for classes. He enrolls as Maxwell Hauser, quickly taking it from a
Maxwell House coffee can. Andrew's cousin and fellow classmate, Patrick , does not recognize him at first. Andrew eventually pulls him aside, revealing himself. He also sleeps at Patrick's, unbeknownst to his aunt. Not willing to take the teachers' biased attitudes, Andrew becomes a hero to those tired of the school's status quo. This upsets Kevin O'Roarke, the current class president, and captures the heart of Ryan Campbell. During an afternoon at the local diner, he accidentally drops a
birthday card meant for his grandmother (who had raised him) and it gets mailed. Later, a hitman posing as an FBI agent contacts his grandmother and sees the card and its postmark, which reveals where Andrew is hiding. One night, back from a date with Ryan, Patrick stops Andrew from entering the house. FBI agents have arrived, knowing he is close because he used his ATM card. Patrick takes his mother's school keys and Andrew ends up using the high school as his refuge. He meets the school janitor, Ezzard, and shares a drink with him, revealing who he is. Andrew, now very popular, is coerced into running for class president, not knowing the election committee has already decided to rig the results in favor of Kevin. Realising he is the last witness against the mobster, Andrew decides to drop out of the election at the school assembly. During the presentation of class election results, Kevin is announced the winner. However, Kevin demands a recount, which reveals that a majority want Andrew as class president. As Andrew starts to address the crowd, a hitman begins firing at the stage. Ezzard, watching the proceedings, incapacitates one of the hitmen, while the other moves up into the rafters of the gym. Andrew chases him and Patrick uses a spotlight to blind the hitman, who loses his grip and falls to the gym floor below. Images of graduation are spliced into images of Andrew taking the stand in court against the mobster for whom he had sold the bogus bonds. After his testimony, Andrew is given a few minutes to say farewell to his grandmother before being placed in the
Witness Protection Program. The last scene is of Ryan, sitting under a tree at a university in Iowa. Andrew, with a different look and now known as Eddie Collins, appears from behind the tree and tells her he has enrolled there to become a teacher. ==Cast==