When prim and proper New England college professor Gwen Barry (Titanic's Frances Fisher) hires handsome young prison inmate Dalton Roy (Derwin Jordan) to tend her yard through a prison work furlough program, their mentor-student relationship soon turns into a passionate love affair. But when Dalton completes his prison sentence, meets a pretty young college student (Kandyse McClure), and attempts to start over again on his own, Gwen becomes obsessed with remaining a part of Dalton's life or destroying it completely.