William Hundert (Kevin Kline) is a passionate and principled Classics professor who is enthusiastic about the start of the school year. His class turns out to be a strict yet inspiring lesson for the new students arriving at St. Benedict's Academy. It is here we are introduced to the party-minded Louis Masoudi (Jesse Eisenberg), the introverted Martin Blythe (Paul Dano), and the studious Deepak Mehta (Rishi Mehta), all of whom are incredibly intelligent. He inspires all of them to study hard in order to become one of the three contestants for The Emperor's Club and be crowned "Mr. Julius Caesar", a competition which pits the top three students of his class in a contest where they will be asked questions regarding the Classics. Blythe also …show more content…

Bell is stumped and Mehta is crowned Julius Caesar of The Emperor's Club. Afterwards, Bell openly admits to Hundert what Hundert had suspected earlier: that Bell cheated by placing notecards on the inside of his toga sleeve. It is revealed in the end, Bell couldn't take the pressure of losing, and like his father, tried everything he could to win it easily. Although Hundert does not reveal this information to anyone else, the trust he once had with Bell is broken. The next couple of scenes show the students graduating to higher grades before finally leaving St. Benedict's Academy. During this time, Hundert regrets not being able to influence Bell more.

Twenty-five years later, Hundert is denied in his bid to become headmaster of the school by the board who feel he doesn't have the ability to drum up financial donations for the school and promptly retires. Later he receives an invitation for a class reunion and a chance to meet up with his students at an event staged by, surprisingly, Bell, who is now quite successful. Once reunited with his students, he is impressed that every one of his students from that fateful class had done well since their days at St. Bendict's and all had successful careers. It is also revealed that Hundert eventually would become headmaster of the school thanks to Bell who has donated money to the school under the circumstances that Hundert