Having broken her hard-and-fast rule about dating members of her department, Hughes Community College English professor Sally Good gets some shocking news about fellow teacher and lukewarm romantic interest Jack Neville: he's being questioned for murder.

The victim was a much disliked college trustee stabbed with a knife that the wry, self-effacing Jack made himself in one of the adult education courses. Certain that Jack's not a killer, even if he doesn't make her libido do flips — unlike a certain other person who is strictly off-limits — Sally probes the dead man's shady personal and professional ethics. Another body pins suspicion on Jack even further, but Sally, using her seasoned skills for nuance and meaning, takes a different interpretation, honing in on a killer trying to hide his dirty secrets in a deadly lesson.