Marvin Spangler is a self-centered, ill-equipped teacher of high school history, tasked by his principal to form an auctioneering team that has a chance in hell of winning a Tennessee state championship.
It comes as a welcome diversion from his tepid life as an unfulfilled husband to his icy pediatrician wife Lydia, and barely-there father to a unique set of children.
He assembles a team comprising three very different souls: Larry Jr., the damaged prodigy, is led by fate, Eric, the obsessed jock, by unrequited love, and Helen, the usually disinterested beauty, by an inexplicable fascination.
Together they surrender to a journey that carries them to the cusp of the summit of their dreams... and the nightmares awaiting far down below.