James Hart (Timothy Bottoms) starts his first year at Harvard Law School in a very bad way. In his contract law course with Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. (John Houseman), he assumes the first class will be an outline of the course. When Kingsfield immediately delves into the material using the Socratic method and asks Hart the first question, he is totally unprepared and feels so utterly humiliated that, after class, he throws up in the bathroom.
Hart is invited to join a study group with five others:

Frank Ford (Graham Beckel), the fifth generation of Fords at Harvard Law School
Kevin Brooks (James Naughton), a married man with an eidetic memory, but no analytical skills
Thomas Anderson (Edward Herrmann)
Willis Bell (Craig Richard Nelson), an abrasive individual who is devoted to property law
O'Connor (Robert Lydiard)
While out getting pizza, he is asked by a woman, Susan Fields (Lindsay Wagner), to walk her home, due to feeling uncomfortable by a man regarding her in a creepy manner. Hart returns to her house soon after and watches her from the sidewalk before knocking on the door and asking her on a date, after which they begin a relationship. Their relationship is complex; she resents the time he devotes to his studies, while he expects her to provide him with a great deal of attention and wants their relationship to have a firm commitment. When Hart and his classmates are invited to a cocktail party hosted by Kingsfield, he is stunned to discover that Susan is Kingsfield's married daughter. (She is, however, separated from her husband and eventually gets a divorce.) She and Hart break up and get back together several times.
Hart divides the class into three groups: those who have given up; those who are trying, but fear being called upon in class to respond to Kingsfield's questions; and the "upper echelon". As time goes on, he moves from the second classification to the third.
The mounting pressure, as the course nears its end, gets to everyone. When Hart gives Kingsfield a flippant answer, the professor gives him a dime and tells him to telephone his mother with the news that he is not likely to become a lawyer. Hart calls Kingsfield a "son of a bitch" and starts to walk out. Surprisingly, Kingsfield agrees with his assessment and invites him to sit back down, which he does. Brooks makes an unsuccessful suicide attempt, then drops out. The study group is torn apart by personal bickering. With final exams looming, Hart and Ford take a hotel room and prepare feverishly for three days.
The film is a faithful adaptation of the novel, though it adds two things not in the book: Hart's first name and middle initial (James T.), and his grade in contract law (93, an A). In both the novel and the film, Hart makes a paper airplane out of the unopened letter containing his grades and sends it sailing into the Atlantic Ocean.[2]
Who is invited to join a study group?
Hart