It’s 1998, and Isabel Rosen has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder. But now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place --- until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling. Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful and talented. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is --- for better and worse.