Having grown up as a girl and having won the ladies' world championship in downhill skiing, Erika Schinegger's career comes to an abrupt end at a sex check before the 1967 Winter Olympics. Despite the vehement resistance of her family and the national skiing federation, she decides to have a sex correction operation, thus opting for her true identity. After surgery and at the age of 20, Erik starts to learn to be a man.