Little Sarah Chomsky decided to become a teacher in first grade. Twenty-six years later, she is Dr. Sarah Chomsky, about to start her second year of teaching at Smoky Mountain University. She has a five-year plan for earning tenure as a college history professor, but the world is determined to distract her from her path. On campus, three of Sarah's students face serious problems that threaten to drag their sympathetic professor into their private lives. An American-born teenager-a brilliant student but challenged by her social and cultural inexperience-struggles to protect her family of illegal immigrants. A football star suffers a traumatic brain injury and finds himself unable to cope with the changes in his life. Now he stands accused of a crime he did not commit. And a privileged young woman shows signs of being the victim of a psychological, as well as physical, abusive relationship. In her personal life, Sarah has written a children's book about her little black cat, and the two of them are much in demand from local bookstores and libraries. Her policeman boyfriend has a distracting new job as district attorney, while his parents cannot understand why he does not settle down and marry that "nice Jewish girl." A whistle-blower threatens their cozy little town when he warns of toxic chemicals in the local water supply, and someone ends up as a murder victim. Can Sarah avoid becoming involved in these crises, or will they pull her away from her lifetime goal?