Artist Laura Edwards (Elizabeth Taylor) prefers to home-school her son, Danny (Morgan Mason), but when the child welfare department intervenes and demands that the boy attend a proper educational institution, Laura bypasses public school in favor of an Episcopal boarding school run by minister Dr. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton). Although married with kids, Hewitt develops an attraction to Laura, and the two begin an affair, but they're soon discovered by Hewitt's wife, Claire (Eva Marie Saint).