Just about everyone makes an off-the-wall decision at some point. Usually it's no big deal. But if it ends up changing people's lives. . .

It's 1973, and Tony Piza (long "i", my friends) decides he needs a carefree year off after college-with pay.

To the shock of his tight-knit family and closest friends, he postpones law school and talks his way into a job teaching sixth grade at a Catholic school in Staten Island, N. Y.

A paid vacation if ever there was one! Yeah, right.

Say hi to the Moby Dick of miscalculations. His pathetic effort is making him look bad, especially compared to the other sixth-grade instructor, Sister Theresa, an energetic young nun whose sunny disposition could have turned Attila the Hun into a daisy-picking philanthropist.

It's also crimping his efforts to enchant Colleen O'Brien, a stunning, straight-talking teacher who sees right through him.

To make matters worse, his irreverent sense of humor antagonizes the powers-that-be: the alpha-male president of the school board, and the pastor who's more interested in single malt scotch than saving souls.

Does he have the ability-or the desire-to turn things around to try to save his job? And will he ever realize that his students deserve a lot more than they've been getting from him?