Bend it like Beckham is a story about Jessminder Bhamra, or Jess. Jess is an Indian girl with a strict, traditional mother, father and a dream of playing football. Jess has only ever played in the park with her friends, all of which are boys, her best friend being Tony. Early on Jules sees Jess playing in the park and invites her to join the local girls’ team, the Hounslow Harriers. When Jess explains to her parents that she’s on a team, her mother becomes so distressed she bans Jess from playing football. Jess however, continues to play behind their backs, sneaking out and faking sick. Pinky, Jess’s sister, covers for her while playing in Germany, where she and Joe get a little too close for Jules’s comfort. It all spirals downwards as Jess’s parents find out, Jules and Jess lose their friendship, and Jules’s mother hears them arguing and thinks they’re both lesbians. Jess continues to try playing behind her parent’s back, but disaster strikes when the Grand Final is on the same date as her sister’s wedding. After being convinced by Tony, who admitted to Jess he was gay, her father lets her sneak out to play the second half where their team is 1 down and Jess makes a free kick and makes it. Jess and Jules’s playing is so great that they both get full scholarships to the Santa Clara University in California, where she can play football professionally. Jules tells her parents straight away, while Jess puts it of a bit. At the end of the wedding reception, Jules’s mother storms in accusing Jess of being a lesbian, then Jules explains that the fight was over Joe. Afterwards Jess tells her mother that she went to the game and won, and that she got a scholarship. Jess’s dad sticks up for her and makes a heart-warming speech about how he stopped playing cricket because he was Indian. Jess’s mother lets her go, finally accepting the fact her daughter is a footballer, and she leaves to go to America.