Barbara Vining is 17 years old and living with her family in a 1950s postwar English village. Her father, Henry, is a newspaper journalist and mother, Vi, a homemaker; her maiden aunt, Evelyn also lives in their home. Barbara attends a coeducational comprehensive school. And, for the first time in her life, Barbara is in love. The object of her affection is a sensitive and handsome gentleman, Stephen Barlow, who teaches Latin to the graduating class at her school. Barlow is an Englishman, married to a beautiful, but very insecure and lonely American lady, Kay. Barbara disappears after a tutoring session at the Barlow home and is "in absentia" for three days. During that time, Barlow is asked to resign and nearly cautioned by the police, as rumors have run amok throughout the village. Many people, including his wife, are uncertain regarding what to think.