Joe Faust has recently moved from Boston to California because his father who is a professor at Stanford got a new job Joe wants to play basketball for the new neighborhood public high school. His father wants him to attend a nice private school and if he gets his grades up he may even get into Stanford. Joe had no interest in attending the private school.

He meets some friend while hanging around the basketball hoop. He becomes very friendly with Ross who is the star basketball player for the public school team. He also meets, John. John is a good basketball play and he is nice but he goes to the prep school where Faust’s father wants him to go.

He gets in friendlier with Ross but Ross is a bad influence. One night after Ross got fired from the golf course he talked Joe Faust into getting the car. The two ended up at the golf course and Ross paints graffiti on the grounds. They escape.

Faust’s mother is an artist and had nude male models come to her studio. Mr. Faust wins a prestigious award and Jo tells a National Enquirer type newspaper that his father does not spend time with him and his mother has models over. Ross and his friend burn a cross on the Faust's lawn.

Joe tells the police who set the fire and Joe's father makes him go the private school.

Joe gets onto the basketball team. He finds an abandoned gym and feels like he has sold he soul to the devil just like the original Faust sold his soul to the devil for knowledge. The English class happens to be reading "Faust" for class. There is a wonderful parallel there and Joe's basketball ability actually does improve after he "sold his soul."

They have an undefeated season but –Faust feels that the price of selling his soul for basketball skills is too high a price to pay. His father has a heart attack. But he starts going to the games. The private school team ends up with an undefeated season. One does not ever find out if he actually sold his soul but I suspect he did not. He just had natural talent. I guess he accepts this at the end of the book and he gets recruited to a smaller school where he can play basketball and his father finally accepts his son for who he is.