1962. Friends and roommates Larry Kroger and Kent Dorfman, having just entered their freshman year at Faber College, are looking to join a fraternity. Being part of the "out" crowd (as they are referred by one "it" girl as a wimp and a blimp respectively), they are only accepted by Delta Tau Chi, arguably the worst fraternity on campus, and Kent only because he is a legacy. Despite Robert Hoover being the chapter president, its leader is Eric Stratton - "Otter" - the ladies man of the group. Otter has as his 2IC Donald Schoenstein - "Boon" - whose supportive girlfriend Katy doesn't much like the fact of Boon, Otter and the others' idea of a good time being to get constantly drunk. At the bottom of the Delta barrel is John Blutarsky - "Bluto" - the chief troublemaker with a 0.0 GPA. Within the Delta environment, Larry and Kent - renamed "Pinto" and "Flounder" respectively by the fraternity - blossom socially as much as they can by being accepted for who they are, but end up being sucked into the goings-on for good or bad of their fraternity brothers. The college's dean, Vernon Wormer, with the help of the stuck up members of Omega Theta Pi led by preppy Greg Marmalard, has vowed to find some way to revoke Delta's charter and expel its members for what seems to be their joy at and singular goal of disrupting life on campus in any way they can. Their general battles take on personal undertones with the involvement of a few women: Mandy Pepperidge, Greg's girlfriend who isn't as innocent as she likes to appear; southern belle Babs Jansen, Mandy's sorority sister who is in love with Greg and thus will willingly throw Mandy under the proverbial bus to get into Greg's heart and pants; and Marion Wormer, the Dean's bored wife. Throughout the battle, the ultimate question becomes which side will have the final move to trump all others.—Huggo