William Grove is a nervous teenager trying to fit in at his new boarding school. Jack Draper is a teacher whose wife is cheating on him with one of his colleagues. Edith Stone is the daughter of the English master who falls in love with the most popular boy in school. Their stories twine together in the claustrophobic confines of the small community of Dorset Academy. And them comes Pearl Harbor and suddenly they are faced with larger issues than the day-to-day problems and politics of school life.