Known for her special rapport with troubled students, Paulette seems just the person to help Kip Bauchmoyer through various issues when he joins her literature class. But rumours soon start circulating that the bond between Kip and the good-looking, sympathetic Paulette goes far beyond any acceptable pupil teacher relationship.

Following Kip’s suicide,the wealthy community to which he belongs closes ranks against Paulette and she finds herself on trial amid a blaze of intrusive media attention, putting a strain on her marriage to her husband, Roger.

Paulette’s only hope for an acquittal is her hard-hitting lawyer, Owen Turner, a man who comes to see Paulette not as a sexual predator but as a dedicated and gifted teacher whose only crime has been to show too much kindness to a young man in need.