Two married professors find themselves at the centre of a scandal just as a young author appears on campus. An English professor faces a slew of accusations against her professor husband by former students—a situation that becomes more complicated when she herself develops an obsession of her own.

'When I was a child, I loved old men, and I could tell that they also loved me.' The narrator is an English professor whose husband, a professor at the same small liberal arts college, is under investigation for his relationships with former students. The couple have long had a mutual understanding when it comes to their extramarital pursuits, but with these new allegations, life has become far less comfortable for them both. When the narrator becomes increasingly infatuated with Vladimir, a married young novelist who's just arrived on campus, their world comes close to exploding.

The story explores where the strictures of morality bump up against the impulses of the human heart, exposing the contradictions of power and desire.