Clellan Camfield, for the third summer, is teaching an art course at Windermere plantation during the six-week summer session. The plantation is owned by two brothers, Jonathan and Alex Graham, who are slowly going bankrupt. During the summer, they rent the house and grounds to Dr. Cary, a professor from New York who wants to buy the plantation to establish a year-round art school. Clellan and Jonathan are mutually attracted to each other, but because of the age difference, nothing has happened. Clellan's roommate, Diana Phalen, who teaches pottery making, has had problems with Dr. Cary in New York this past spring. One night she sees Kenny Sullivan, Dr. Cary's protege, in a sexual encounter with an unseen partner. She receives a thousand-dollar payment from a mysterious source, and she asks Clellan to hide the money for her. Shortly thereafter, she is found hanging from the rafters in the barn, a suicide note nearby. Clellan does not believe it is suicide."