Dr. Emma Rothenberg is the most feared professor at Overland University because of her failure rate. Laramie "Ramie" Sunderlund is a senior art major, desperate to earn three lousy English credits to graduate. Thrown together in a battle of wills, the two women grudgingly establish a measure of respect for one another during one long semester. Emma is a lonely woman of forty-five who occasionally risks her career with dangerous liaisons. Ramie faces unwanted advances from Rothenberg's graduate assistant, resulting in an assault that threatens her future as a sculptress. Relieved when the semester ends and Ramie leaves to recuperate at home, Emma is suddenly faced with the fact that she misses the woman with curly blonde hair and deep blue eyes who occupied an aisle seat on the third row. She was also a young woman half her age, virtually a child. The notion of anything between them is ridiculous. When Ramie returns to the university a decade later as the artist-in-residence, Emma is shocked that the younger woman seems interested in actively pursuing her. Against the objections of parents, friends, and colleagues, and despite their own reservations, what are these two very different women willing to sacrifice to find the happiness both are seeking?