Nikolas is a dedicated, high-minded literature teacher helping a schoolroom full of sullen, poverty-stricken youths in a tough, unruly Athens school program. His wife, a shrewd businesswoman, would do anything to protect the life she's built in her carefully curated role in a middle-class suburb—including lying to everyone about her financial and extramarital affairs. When Nikolas meets his favorite student's mother, he feels an immediate physical attraction to her, and they decide to spend a night together in a no-tell motel. While Nikolas wrestles with his conscience, he makes a surprising discovery: his student's mother was killed in an automobile accident long ago. But the shock goes even deeper when his wife is gunned down during a bungled break-in at their house and his daughter is taken to a hospital in critical condition. Suddenly his life is thrown into tumult as he tries to see if there's more to his wife's murder than there seems to be. Challenged by deception and treachery on all sides, Nikolas is desperate for justice and to find his family's assailants.