Fifteen-year-old Jeremy Chandler loves to play basketball, but he knows he"ll never be on the school team. Despite his quickness and knowledge, a birth defect that left him with an injured right arm prevents him from being able to compete. Still, he hangs out in the gym so much that his nick name is Rat--short for "gym rat." Jeremy"s admiration for the guys on the basketball team receives a shock, however, when he testifies in court against the teams" coach whom he saw molesting a cheerleader. Now a championship season is threatened, his friendship with the players destroyed, and his life in school tormented by a player who seeks revenge against Jeremy for his testimony. Into Jeremy"s bleak world enters a new coach, his expectant wife, and their daughter. Through them, Jeremy is forced to decide whether friends are more important than the truth and to come to terms with being born with a permanently injured right arm.