Honky Mark Watson needs a scholarship to get into Harvard Law School, but there's only one available, for a black student! Thanks to an overdose of tanning pills, a new hair-do and an altered voice Mark miraculously (and I can't overemphasise that word) passes for African-American and receives full tuition. However the white boy is about to find out what it's like to be black and some harsh lessons in discrimination and racial abuse are just around the corner, although this being a Hollywood comedy we get to see more of the prat falls and confused identity gags that happen when someone attempts to be something that they're not.