One woman's mistake is another's opportunity. Barbara Covett is a bitter, cynical and lonely schoolteacher who is close to retirement. Her private life consists of caring for her ageing cat, Portia, writing her daily journal, and living alone in her basement flat. When Sheba Hart, a younger, attractive woman, joins the school in Islington as an art teacher, Barbara watches her disapprovingly at first but then finds herself becoming drawn to the younger woman and reaches out to her for friendship. Sheba responds by inviting Barbara to dinner at her house to meet her lecturer husband, Richard, who is twenty years her senior, and their two children, Polly, a sexy and rebellious 16-year-old daughter and Ben, a younger boy with Downs Syndrome.
Barbara becomes close to Sheba, but when she accidentally discovers that Sheba is having an affair with the 15-year-old student Steven Connolly, Barbara sees the chance to manipulate and get closer to Sheba, hiding the secret from the school headmaster. Barbara promises not to tell anyone but insists that the affair end immediately. Sheba agrees to this condition but finds herself drawn back to the boy again and again.
Sheba becomes uneasy with Barbara's friendship and is appalled when she discovers the older woman might have a sexual interest in her. The tenuous relationship between the two women reaches a crisis point when Barbara's cat is dying and she asks Sheba to go with her to the vet. Sheba is about to leave with her family to see their son in a play and cannot disappoint him. Barbara is outraged by Sheba's decision which she sees as an act of betrayal, and in revenge, sets in motion a scandal that will bring destruction in ways she never imagined.
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