"The Frosh" is a story of a group of freshmen going through initiation at Ezra Bible College in the school year of 1966-67. While the Vietnam War and Civil Rights rage in the background and Women's Liberation begins, the groups' personal norms and beliefs are challenged, as the upperclassmen teach them to lie, cheat, and undergo the rite of hazing. The book is told through the thoughts and camera's eye view of Jim Scott, a brooding dreamer from Indiana who arrives on campus with a dark secret from the night of his high school gradution. He makes friends with Peter Brown, a wise-cracking surfer from Florida, Solo Mack, a determined, first black student from Tennessee, and Duke Wellington, a smooth guitarist from Missouri. Jim Scott has his ups-and-downs coping with the upperclassmen, professors, and the coeds. A friendship with Jane Embrolio, a volatile sophisticate from California, developes and his life changes forever.