In a time of pain and prejudice, in a nation reeling from World War I, new school teacher Martin Conlon, (Peter Coyote) arrives in the picturesque Northwest farming community. Conlon brings with him the new game of basketball, and some unorthodox teaching methods. Basketball, he reasons, is a metaphor for life and teamwork. But soon the town erupts into a social battleground when two young German immigrants, Helmut and Brigitta Brink, also arrive. At the epicentre of the whirlwind is farm-wife Bessie Emery (Karen Allen), whose eldest son returns from the war badly injured by German artillery, while another son falls in love with the breathtaking new German girl. With tensions riding high, Conlon enters his young students in a basketball game against an established adult squad. Woven against a background of beauty, THE BASKET ultimately points to triumph and hope in a changing America.