- A happily married woman comes to realize herself of being a repressed lesbian after she has an affair with a female college professor, and then tries to come to terms with her newfound lifestyle.
- Lianna and her husband Dick have been married for a few years but the marriage isn't a happy one, since Dick treats her with arrogance. One day Lianna falls in love - with Ruth, a teacher. The people who know them act different: her husband with feelings of sexual betrayal, her children with curiosity and Lianna's friends with ambivalence.—Mattias Thuresson
- In a northern New Jersey college town, Lianna (Linda Griffiths), the wife of English teacher Dick Massey (Jon DeVries), visits her husband's classroom as he gives special attention to his attractive female students. While Dick worries about his prospects for becoming a tenured professor, Lianna and her friend, Sandy (Jo Henderson), attend a child psychology class conducted by visiting professor Ruth Brennan (Jane Hallaren), for whom Lianna develops an attraction.
Dick resents the two nights per week Lianna spends in class, believing she should be attending to their two children, 10-year-old Theda (Jessica Wight MacDonald) and 13-year-old Spencer (Jesse Solomon), or assisting him with his research. Lianna argues that she finds the class exhilarating and refuses to quit. She further exacerbates the situation by informing Dick the following Friday that she is attending class that night, rather than joining him at a faculty party.
After class, Ruth accepts Lianna's offer to assist with her latest research project, and makes a dinner date with her. Hoping to appease Dick, Lianna attends the party, and finds her husband in the host's back yard with a topless female student. A heated argument ensues when they return home.
Lianna has a chance encounter with Ruth the following afternoon, and they discuss their personal lives. That evening, Dick announces his departure for a film festival in Toronto, Canada, and suggests that the brief hiatus might allow the couple time to assess their marriage. Later, Lianna dresses for her dinner with Ruth, while Theda spends the night with Sandy's daughter, Ellie, and Spencer occupies himself with pornographic magazines.
During dinner, Lianna talks openly about her attraction to women, and Ruth seduces her. After their lovemaking, Lianna returns home in the early morning hours, feeling self-conscious about her lesbian affair, and guilty about leaving her son alone. However, she continues to see Ruth, although she is frustrated by the necessity of keeping both the affair and her sexuality a secret.
Lianna and Ruth attend a faculty party together, where Lianna meets Kim (Nancy Mette), Dick's latest mistress, who expounds on the life and career of the late film star, Audie Murphy. Upon Dick's return from Toronto, Lianna informs him of her affair. When she voices her desire for a legal separation, Dick orders her out of the house, and threatens her parental rights. The following day, Lianna troubles really begin when she is disappointed when Ruth denies her request that they live together, explaining that it could result in a scandal and the loss of her job.
After informing her children of the separation, Lianna rents a small apartment and finds employment in a supermarket as a cashier. Meanwhile, Dick explains the reason for the separation to the children, and although Spencer accepts his mother's new life, Theda is disillusioned.
One night, after making love to Lianna, Ruth reveals that she is in a committed relationship with a woman at her home university, but is unsure whether she wants it to continue. Later, they go dancing at a lesbian bar, where Lianna sees a neighbor among the patrons, and after they overcome their mutual embarrassment, the two women dance together.
As Lianna becomes more comfortable with her sexuality, Ruth must remind her to be more discreet with her public displays of affection, or jeopardize both their reputations and lives. When Ruth announces she is making a brief trip to her university to determine the future of her relationship, Lianna feels rejected and becomes depressed.
The next day at Lianna's apartment, she is unsuccessfully propositioned by Jerry Carlson (John Sayles), one of Dick's colleagues who makes a quick visit. But Lianna has better luck when she is befriended by her upstairs neighbors Sheila (Maggie Renzi) and Liz (Nancy Elizabeth Kammer), a pair of students who are accepting of Lianna's sexuality. Later, Dick allows Lianna custody of the children two days per week, and threatens to expose her affair with Ruth if she does not accept his terms.
Ruth returns to New Jersey, and while she is free of her commitment, she also rejects Lianna, explaining that she is not ready to start another relationship. When Lianna next encounters Jerry, he apologizes for propositioning her and endorses her romance with Ruth. Dick continues to resent Lianna, but promises he will not come between her and the children, although she believes he simply wants more free time for his sexual liaisons. Lianna overcomes Theda's disapproval by brushing the child's hair, as she did every night before the separation, proving that she is still the same person she always was.
With her work complete, Ruth decides to leave town to return to California and invites Lianna to spend one final night with her. Afterward, Lianna is despondent, but she finds comfort in a chance meeting with Sally as they rekindle their friendship.
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