Cheaters is about the 1995 Academic Decathlon team from Steinmetz High School. Steinmetz HS is an overcrowded, underfunded school located in a poorer section of Chicago. Most of the students appear to be from blue-collar backgrounds. Gerard Plecki, an English teacher (well played be Jeff Daniels) organizes the AD team to try to compete at regionals, particulary against favorite and rival, Whitney Young High School, portrayed as a magnet school. At first the morale and motivation is high amongst the Steinmetz team but as they severely lose to Whitney Young at regionals, they increasingly view their situation as hopeless and lack confidence to compete at the state finals. However an interesting dilemma comes up as one of the team members comes up with a copy of the test for the state finals. Should the team cheat or stay honest? If they cheat, will they get away with it?

The students, encouraged by the teacher, decide to cheat and eventually get caught. Although it wasn’t right for Steinmetz to cheat, the movie shows that the world is not a level playing field and that people from more white-collar walks of life have much higher advantages and potential for success than those from blue-collar walks of life.