Plot summary

John Farley has achieved overwhelming success from the publication of his self-help book, "Letting Go", which espouses letting go of one's past to be able to move on with life. The philosophies in the book were the mechanisms he used to get over some painful issues from his own past, namely the passing of his father when he was a child, and what he saw as the physical and emotional abuse hurled at him, as the fat kid, and that of almost all of his classmates by their sadistic high school gym teacher, Jasper Woodcock. Because of the book, John receives the Corn Cob Key to the City from his farming hometown, Forest Meadow, Nebraska. Against the wishes of his hard nosed manager Maggie, John plans on attending the ceremony to pick up the award - the culmination of the annual Cornival - as he sees it as something prestigious within his own history, and it will allow him to spend some time with his still single mother, Beverly Farley, the Cornival Queen of 1970 who still rides on the queens' float in the Cornival parade. John's visit with his mother takes a turn for the bad when he learns that she is in a serious relationship of five months, with none other than Mr. Woodcock, who John believes has not changed since John was in his class. Things go from bad to worse when he further learns that Mr. Woodcock, still teaching gym, will be awarded the Educator of the Year at the same ceremony, and when Mr. Woodcock and his mother get engaged. With his former classmate Nedderman by his side, Nedderman who received that similar abuse in gym class, John goes on a mission to expose Mr. Woodcock for who he really is and/or get even from all that abuse, even at the possible expense of his mother's happiness. What may work to John's advantage is that Mr. Woodcock has no recollection of "Farley" in his gym class at all and as such has no idea of the rage seething within him.—Huggo