Ms. Beatrice Hempel has just taken her first job as an English teacher. Closer in age and sensibility to her pupils than to her colleagues, she spends her time outside of school hours reading, writing, listening to rock and roll, and wondering whether she really was right to get engaged. In the classroom, too, she feels 'in-between'. Still young enough to understand her students' way of seeing things, she wants to be their accomplice; but she also feels a terrible responsibility as the adult witness to their adolescent growing pains.