Tim Hughes goes through a transformation from juvenile delinquent to a kid who has "seen the Light". When he and his friend get caught stealing an ice-cream truck, Tim tries to straighten himself out. He meets a girl who invites him to a get-together of Christian kids after class. Tim starts reading the Bible, and brings it to school, but is ashamed that all his JD friends will find out and ridicule him. When his new friends invite him to Bible camp, his talk-show-host father is opposed, fearing his son may return home as some kind of a "Bible-banger". And Tim's mother notices a personality change in her son. At the camp, Tim's loner buddy goes canoeing on the river but runs into trouble on the rapids, and Tim goes off to search for him, risking his own life to save his friend's.