Michael Ryan is a high school student who receives an anonymous love letter. He is obsessed with Deborah Ann Fimple, the class beauty, and his best friend, Roger, suggests that the letter is from her. However, he is totally oblivious that his friend Toni Williams is in love with him. Michael writes Deborah Ann an anonymous love letter in return, and asks Toni to give it to her. She reads it and, realizing it's poorly written and unromantic (since Michael had copied words from greeting cards), she rewrites it. Elizabeth Fimple, Deborah Ann's mother, discovers the letter. Her jealous police officer husband, Lou Fimple, sees her reading it. He steals the letter, and believes that his wife is having an affair. He suspects his neighbor (and bridge partner) George Ryan. George also reads the letter (although by mistake) because Lou's wife is his night school teacher and it somehow ends up in his book. When he asks her about it, he assumes she wants to have an affair with him, despite the fact that she is friends with his wife. Meanwhile, Lou shows the letter to George's wife, Connie, and proposes that they expose the adulterers. Receiving no response from Deborah Ann, Michael writes a second letter, which Toni again rewrites. Michael experiences a series of wacky adventures with his friends throughout the summer before his Senior year in
High School. Toni arranges a meeting between the two, he tells Deborah Ann that he wrote the love letters. SO, she finally agrees to a real date, during which they are almost caught by Debbie's jock college "quasi boyfriend" Steve. However, Toni intervenes by pretending to seduce him and later ditches him. After a short while Michael realizes Deb is snobby and shallow — not like he expected her to be — and begins to realize his true feelings for Toni. Eventually, Michael and Deb break up at his birthday party, not able to sleep with her when she intends for this to be his birthday present. Eventually, Lou and Connie cannot control themselves at a bridge party: Lou assaults George, and Connie has a breakdown in front of their friends. When Michael returns home, he finds his parents arguing and his mother reading his letter. He angrily tells them it actually belongs to him while scolding them for invading his private mail, leaving them in shock. At Deborah's, Lou confronts Elizabeth about the letter. Deborah Ann overhears him reading the letter out loud and tearfully reprimands him, revealing the letter is hers, which leaves Lou in shock. Angered that her parents invaded her privacy, Deborah Ann heads to her room and breaks down into tears. Later, Michael returns to Toni's, confessing that nothing happened between him and Deborah and in the process declares his feelings for Toni and wonders if anything can ever happen between them. However, refusing to admit her feelings after everything that happened, she rejects Michael. Just as the fall semester is about to start, Deborah confronts Michael about the love letters, but upon seeing them, Michael learns they aren't the letters he wrote and realizes that Toni wrote the original love letter (by comparing Debbie's letter to Toni's handwriting). He races to her home, but is told that she already left on a
study abroad program aboard a ship that will keep her away for her
Senior Year. Michael rushes to the dockyard after a brief scuffle with Steve, screaming his love for Toni. After shouting her love for him as the ship continues to sail away, he dives into the water, but cannot reach the ship. Toni dives into the water, too. They embrace in the water and kiss. == Cast ==