A fraternity may be a brotherhood, but a man isn't born into it. He earns the right to membership by surviving the humorous humiliations of hazing. Sometimes, however, they're not so humorous. At the Preston's upstate New York alma mater, a boy dies during an initiation ritual. The three young men involved are accused of manslaughter and the Prestons take the case. Their defense calls into question the validity of the whole fraternity system.