The soon-to-be 21-year-old Benjamin Braddock returns to his parents' home in Southern California after graduating from a college on the East Coast. At his graduation party, all his parents' friends want to hear what he is going to do next, something Benjamin is clearly uncomfortable and anxious about. His parents ignore this and are only interested in talking about his academic and track successes and their plans for him to go to graduate school.

Mrs. Robinson, the wife of his father's law partner, asks Benjamin to drive her home from the party. She invites the nervous Benjamin in and attempts to seduce him, removing her clothes. Mr. Robinson arrives home but neither sees nor suspects anything. A few days later, Benjamin contacts her and clumsily organizes a tryst at a hotel, reserving a room under the name Mr. Gladstone. They begin an affair.

Benjamin spends the summer floating in a pool by day and meeting Mrs. Robinson at the hotel at night. Benjamin discovers that they have nothing to talk about but he does learn that Mrs. Robinson was forced to give up college and marry someone she did not love when she became pregnant with Elaine.

Mr. Robinson tells Benjamin he should relax and enjoy himself while he is young. Benjamin's parents however are keen for him to start on a career. Both they and Mr. Robinson try to set Benjamin up with Elaine, whom Benjamin last saw in high school where they did not get along well. Mrs. Robinson however makes it clear that she wants him to have nothing to do with Elaine. Benjamin eventually gives in to the pressure from his parents and dates Elaine but he intentionally upsets her by taking her to a strip club. After seeing her crying, he explains he was mean only because his parents forced him to ask her out. He awkwardly kisses her to try to cheer her up and they go for a burger at a drive-in. He then takes her home where she asks him in for a cup of coffee and he says that he would not want to wake anybody up. Benjamin suggests they go for a drink and Elaine suggests the bar at the Taft Hotel. At the Taft Hotel, the staff greet him as Mr. Gladstone, making him very uneasy.

Benjamin discovers that Elaine is someone he is comfortable with and that he can talk to her about his worries.

Seeing the relationship between her daughter and Benjamin grow, Mrs. Robinson threatens to reveal their affair to destroy any chance Benjamin has with Elaine. Benjamin rashly decides to tell Elaine before her mother does. Very upset, Elaine returns to her university at Berkeley, and refuses to speak with Benjamin.

Benjamin decides he must marry Elaine and goes to Berkeley to find her. He contrives a meeting on a bus while she is on her way to a date with her classmate Carl. An angry Elaine demands to know what he is doing in Berkeley after he raped her mother while she was drunk. Benjamin tells her that her mother seduced him, something Elaine does not want to hear, so Benjamin says he will go somewhere else. Elaine tells Benjamin not to leave until he has a definite plan. The next day, Elaine comes to Benjamin's apartment in the middle of the night and asks him to kiss her. The two hang out in Berkeley where Benjamin presses her to get blood tests so they can get married. Elaine is unsure about this and says she has told Carl she might marry him.

Mr. Robinson, who has learned about his wife's affair with Benjamin, goes to Benjamin's apartment in Berkeley and berates him. Mr. Robinson threatens to have him prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law should Benjamin ever come near Elaine again. He forces Elaine to drop out of school and takes her away to marry Carl. Benjamin is left with just a note from Elaine saying that she loves him but that her father is really angry and it can never work out.

Benjamin races back to Pasadena looking for Elaine but finds Mrs. Robinson instead. She tells him he cannot stop the wedding and she calls the police. Benjamin rushes back to Berkeley and learns from Carl's fraternity brothers that the wedding is in Santa Barbara. He speeds off towards Santa Barbara, where he stops at a gas station for directions to the church. Benjamin is in such a hurry that he rushes off without refueling.

When the car runs out of gas, he sprints the last few blocks. He arrives at the church just as the bride and groom are about to kiss. Thinking he is too late he bangs on the glass window at the back of the church and screams "Elaine! Elaine!"

Elaine turns around, hesitates while looking at her parents and her new husband, but then screams out "Ben!" and runs towards him. A brawl breaks out as everyone tries to stop her and Benjamin from leaving. Elaine manages to break free from her mother, who claims "It's too late!", to which Elaine replies, "Not for me!" Benjamin holds everybody off by swinging a cross ripped from the wall, then uses it to jam the outside door shut while they escape. They run down the road and flag down a bus.

In the last scene, the elated and smiling couple are in the back seat. Benjamin's smile gradually fades to an enigmatic, neutral expression as he gazes forward down the bus, not looking at Elaine. Elaine seems unsure and looks lovingly at Ben, but after noticing his expression she turns away with a similar visage as the bus takes them away.

Kinda

The Phonics Bus