It's discovered that a young girl who has just transferred to Jefferson High was tried and acquitted of killing her parents. The other students ostracize her and she becomes the subject of a whispering campaign, even among some of the teachers.
When Mr. Novak uncovers a tight knit group of four male students secretly living together in an unusual arrangement, he must also take on the person enabling the minors.
Novak helps a former teacher and mentor obtain a position at the school. The instructor is a recovering alcoholic, while his much-younger wife is still afflicted with the disease.
Maude Phipps, a teacher for some 40 years, is sharply outspoken and is the object of various complaints -- including those of irate parents who don't like the idea of her teaching social hygiene to their children.