Oliver and Lucy Crown's marriage was exemplary, the envy of neighbors and friends. Oliver was a successful, wealthy businessman, Lucy a beautiful, submissive wife and loving mother who had given up her job for the sake of their family. However, it took fifteen years—and just one fateful summer—for them to realize their happy marriage was merely an illusion. Oliver decides to hire a tutor for his son, Tony, for the entire summer to help him recover from a recent, serious illness. A twenty-year-old student named Jeff takes on the job, and with him, unexpected love bursts into Lucy's life. Is this a mad burst of passion that burns out without leaving a trace? The unconscious rebellion of a woman crushed by her husband's complacent domineering? Or a tragedy of misunderstanding and resentment, which this relationship has become for Tony, who discovered it by chance?