diff --git a/bin/pt-online-schema-change b/bin/pt-online-schema-change
index 706c072e..1f85ce14 100755
--- a/bin/pt-online-schema-change
+++ b/bin/pt-online-schema-change
@@ -8169,6 +8169,8 @@ sub main {
    # ########################################################################
    # Init the --plugin.
    # ########################################################################   
+
+   # --plugin hook
    if ( $plugin && $plugin->can('init') ) {
       $plugin->init(
          orig_tbl       => $orig_tbl,
@@ -10168,9 +10170,10 @@ server. See L<"--max-load"> and L<"--critical-load"> for details.
 
 =item *
 
-The tool sets its lock wait timeout to 1 second so that it is more likely to be
-the victim of any lock contention, and less likely to disrupt other
-transactions. See L<"--lock-wait-timeout"> for details.
+The tool sets C<innodb_lock_wait_timeout=1> and (for MySQL 5.5 and newer)
+C<lock_wait_timeout=60> so that it is more likely to be the victim of any
+lock contention, and less likely to disrupt other transactions.  These
+values can be changed by specifying L<"--set-vars">.
 
 =item *
 
@@ -10705,8 +10708,13 @@ removed automatically when the tool exits.
 
 type: string
 
-Use the given Perl module to access hooks in the tool.
-C<package pt_online_schema_change_plugin> must be defined in the file.
+Perl module file that defines a C<pt_online_schema_change_plugin> class.
+A plugin allows you to write a Perl module that can hook into many parts
+of pt-online-schema-change.  This requires a good knowledge of Perl and
+Percona Toolkit conventions, which are beyond this scope of this
+documentation.  Please contact Percona if you have questions or need help.
+
+See L<"PLUGIN"> for more information.
 
 =item --port
 
@@ -10862,6 +10870,52 @@ For more information, visit L<https://www.percona.com/version-check>.
 
 =back
 
+=head1 PLUGIN
+
+The file specified by L<"--plugin"> must define a class (i.e. a package)
+called C<pt_online_schema_change_plugin> with a C<new()> subroutine.
+The tool will create an instance of this class and call any hooks that
+it defines.  No hooks are required, but a plugin isn't very useful without
+them.
+
+These hooks, in this order, are called if defined:
+
+   init
+   before_create_new_table
+   after_create_new_table
+   before_alter_new_table
+   after_alter_new_table
+   before_create_triggers
+   after_create_triggers
+   before_copy_rows
+   after_copy_rows
+   before_swap_tables
+   after_swap_tables
+   before_update_foreign_keys
+   after_update_foreign_keys
+   before_drop_old_table
+   after_drop_old_table
+   before_drop_triggers
+   before_exit
+
+Each hook is passed different arguments.  To see which arguments are passed
+to a hook, search for the hook's name in the tool's source code, like:
+
+   # --plugin hook
+   if ( $plugin && $plugin->can('init') ) {
+      $plugin->init(
+         orig_tbl       => $orig_tbl,
+         child_tables   => $child_tables,
+         renamed_cols   => $renamed_cols,
+         slaves         => $slaves,
+         slave_lag_cxns => $slave_lag_cxns,
+      );
+   }
+
+The comment C<# --plugin hook> precedes every hook call.
+
+Please contact Percona if you have questions or need help.
+
 =head1 DSN OPTIONS
 
 These DSN options are used to create a DSN.  Each option is given like
diff --git a/t/pt-online-schema-change/plugin.t b/t/pt-online-schema-change/plugin.t
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1be15200
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/pt-online-schema-change/plugin.t
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env perl
+
+BEGIN {
+   die "The PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH environment variable is not set.\n"
+      unless $ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH} && -d $ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH};
+   unshift @INC, "$ENV{PERCONA_TOOLKIT_BRANCH}/lib";
+};
+
+use strict;
+use warnings FATAL => 'all';
+use English qw(-no_match_vars);
+use Test::More;
+
+use PerconaTest;
+use Sandbox;
+require "$trunk/bin/pt-online-schema-change";
+
+use Data::Dumper;
+$Data::Dumper::Indent    = 1;
+$Data::Dumper::Sortkeys  = 1;
+$Data::Dumper::Quotekeys = 0;
+
+my $dp         = new DSNParser(opts=>$dsn_opts);
+my $sb         = new Sandbox(basedir => '/tmp', DSNParser => $dp);
+my $dbh = $sb->get_dbh_for('master');
+
+if ( !$dbh ) {
+   plan skip_all => 'Cannot connect to sandbox master';
+}
+
+my $output;
+my $master_dsn = $sb->dsn_for('master');
+my $sample     = "t/pt-online-schema-change/samples";
+my $plugin     = "$trunk/$sample/plugins";
+my $exit;
+my $rows;
+
+# Loads pt_osc.t with cols id (pk), c (unique index),, d.
+$sb->load_file('master', "$sample/basic_no_fks_innodb.sql");
+
+# #############################################################################
+# all_hooks.pm
+# #############################################################################
+
+($output) = full_output(
+   sub { pt_online_schema_change::main(
+      "$master_dsn,D=pt_osc,t=t",
+      '--plugin', "$plugin/all_hooks.pm",
+      qw(--statistics --execute),
+   )},
+   stderr => 1,
+);
+
+my @called = $output =~ m/^PLUGIN \S+$/gm;
+
+is_deeply(
+   \@called,
+   [
+      'PLUGIN init',
+      'PLUGIN before_create_new_table',
+      'PLUGIN after_create_new_table',
+      'PLUGIN before_alter_new_table',
+      'PLUGIN after_alter_new_table',
+      'PLUGIN before_create_triggers',
+      'PLUGIN after_create_triggers',
+      'PLUGIN before_copy_rows',
+      'PLUGIN after_copy_rows',
+      'PLUGIN before_swap_tables',
+      'PLUGIN after_swap_tables',
+      'PLUGIN before_drop_old_table',
+      'PLUGIN after_drop_old_table',
+      'PLUGIN before_drop_triggers',
+      'PLUGIN before_exit'
+   ],
+   "Called all plugins on basic run"
+) or diag(Dumper(\@called));
+
+# #############################################################################
+# Done.
+# #############################################################################
+$sb->wipe_clean($dbh);
+ok($sb->ok(), "Sandbox servers") or BAIL_OUT(__FILE__ . " broke the sandbox");
+done_testing;
diff --git a/t/pt-online-schema-change/samples/plugins/all_hooks.pm b/t/pt-online-schema-change/samples/plugins/all_hooks.pm
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f629fc51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/t/pt-online-schema-change/samples/plugins/all_hooks.pm
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+package pt_online_schema_change_plugin;
+
+use strict;
+use warnings FATAL => 'all';
+use English qw(-no_match_vars);
+use constant PTDEBUG => $ENV{PTDEBUG} || 0;
+
+sub new {
+   my ($class, %args) = @_;
+   my $self = { %args };
+   return bless $self, $class;
+}
+
+sub init {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN init\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_create_new_table {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_create_new_table\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_create_new_table {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_create_new_table\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_alter_new_table {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_alter_new_table\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_alter_new_table {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_alter_new_table\n";
+}
+
+sub before_create_triggers {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_create_triggers\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_create_triggers {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_create_triggers\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_copy_rows {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_copy_rows\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_copy_rows {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_copy_rows\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_swap_tables {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_swap_tables\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_swap_tables {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_swap_tables\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_update_foreign_keys {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_update_foreign_keys\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_update_foreign_keys {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_update_foreign_keys\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_drop_old_table {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_drop_old_table\n";
+}
+ 
+sub after_drop_old_table {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN after_drop_old_table\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_drop_triggers {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_drop_triggers\n";
+}
+ 
+sub before_exit {
+   my ($self, %args) = @_;
+   print "PLUGIN before_exit\n";
+}
+
+1;