When a new student transfers to principal Tom Gardner' s school, Tom instantly recognizes that this teenager is the son he never knew he had, the result of a one-night stand years before. Raised by an adoring and fiercely independent mother who never revealed the name of his biological father, Kent is a fine young man. But his very presence represents something deeper and darker to the members of Tom Gardner' s family. To Claire— Tom' s wife— Kent is the symbol of an act of betrayal so bitterly wrenching that she cannot forgive her husband. To Chelsea, their daughter, he is the boy she is falling in love with, and to Claire' s son, Robby, Kent is his rival in the classroom and on the football field. As the Gardners careen toward disaster, they must learn the true meaning of unconditional love.