Jimmy Bordeaux, son of Peter 'the Piper' Bordeaux, a professional pool player, sees his first pool table on his third birthday. His mother doesn't want her husband taking Jimmy to "pool halls." That ends in a divorce, and Jimmy grows up shooting pool, entering and winning junior tournaments, and living mostly with his mother and her new husband. Complications arise, and he focuses more on pool, eventually earning an invitation to compete in a men's Eighth Annual Summer Classic 9-Ball Championship at age fifteen.