Fresh out of Wolpert University, Ashley Brisbois finds herself at sea.  She takes an unsatisfactory job, shares a Boston apartment with an old friend from high school, and finds a beau, Bruce, a university instructor, who is equally at sea.  For all that, she misses the direction and purpose she felt while a student.  Introspective, thoughtful, given to musings, she lives, according to her roommate, Shannon, so much in her imagination that she sometimes appears to forget that she is also a physical creature with physical appetites.  Unsure of what she wants from life, unsure of her feelings for Bruce, she is surprised during a Christmas visit to her home town by the appearance of an old boyfriend, James Elliot, with whom she shared a strong, brief, sexual interlude.  She finds she’s still drawn to him, but only sexually.  She yields to temptation and the pair spends a night in a rented room.  When Bruce discovers her infidelity, Ashley must confront her guilt and shame and figure out what sort of person she will become.