David Morrissey's life is near-perfect. A widower with a teenage daughter, he teaches at an ultraconservative Southern preparatory school, had been voted Teacher of the Year three times, and is engaged to the daughter of the chairman of the school's board.

That life comes to a screeching halt when the fact of his previous employment is emblazoned across the headlines of the school newspaper . .

. that twenty years before, everyone's favorite teacher was a cover model famous for those hot historical romances called "bodice rippers.

"David isn't ashamed of his former employment. He simply considers it part of a different life and never mentions it.

It's even on his application. The school board takes a jaundiced view, however, if a trifle belatedly.

In short order, he loses his job, his fiancée, and has television and newspaper reporters beating down his door for interviews. It's all just a little unfair.

David isn't taking it sitting down, however. He's preparing to fight back against the board's decision.

Little does he know that this newsworthy event will bring back into his life the woman he loved and lost, and another much bigger, more important secret. .