High school theater geek Justine Jacobson hopes to be cast as Marc Antony in her school’s winter production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, but she loses the part to Matt Walbach, a fellow junior who is dabbling in theater while he recovers from a football injury. To add insult to injury, Justine is named Matt’s understudy. She offers to coach Matt on his acting, but intentionally offers him bad advice, hoping that he will be cut from the play and she can step into his role. When this plan backfires, Justine makes a deal with the play’s director to help the struggling Matt—for real this time—in exchange for credit as the production’s assistant director. She helps him overcome his despair when he learns that his football injury will end his high school athletic career and his hopes for a college scholarship, and he helps her learn how to collaborate and share the stage with her fellow actors. Opening night looms, and Matt is still unable to master his part, so he and Justine come up with a desperate plan to steer the production away from sure disaster, in the process cementing their unlikely friendship.