Plot

Katherine Watson teaches art history in 1953 at the respectable all-female Wellesley College. She encourages her conservative students to question and disregard the outdated societal mores for women.

Katherine Ann Watson has accepted a position teaching art history at the prestigious Wellesley College. Watson is a very modern woman, particularly for the 1950s, and has a passion not only for art but for her students. For the most part, the students all seem to be biding their time, waiting to find the right man to marry. The students are all very bright and Watson feels they are not reaching their potential. Altough a strong bond is formed between teacher and student, Watson's views are incompatible with the dominant culture of the college.—garykmcd

Katherine Watson, an Oakland State University Ph.D. student, is hired as an Art History instructor at Wellesley College for the 1953/54 school year. She is not an obvious choice as Wellesley is an exclusive upper crust institution where its faculty, students and alumni generally look down upon "State" universities. Katherine quickly learns that her paper credentials do affect how her students treat her. She also learns that the students are book smart, but do not know how to think for themselves. Their parents and the school administration foster a predetermined path in life for the girls, namely to stick to traditional mores and thoughts, with the primary goal of marrying into a good family. There are pockets of free thinking among faculty and the students, but those thoughts and associated actions are generally quashed by the overall tone of the school. Katherine decides to instill into her students her own beliefs of what is important in learning. Will the students and administration allow Katherine to be contrary to the prescribed thought?—Huggo

In 1953, free spirited and non-orthodox art history teacher Katherine Ann Watson accepts the challenge of teaching in the conservative Wellesley College. She leaves her boy-friend Paul Moore in California and share a house with the teacher Nancy Abbey and the nurse Amanda. On the first day, her class fails under the leadership of the arrogant Betty Warren and her friends Joan Brandwyn and Giselle Levy, but Katherine is advised by her mates and the Italian teacher Bill Dunbar to not fear the students. Soon Katherine learns that the girls are only waiting to catch Mr. Nice Guy and get married and she fights against the status-quo of Wellesley and to keep her independence.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Set in 1953, Katherine Watson (Roberts) is a free-spirited graduate of UCLA who accepts a teaching post at Wellesley College, a women-only school where the students are torn between the repressive mores of the time and their longing for intellectual freedom.—Anonymous

Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), an Oakland State University Ph.D. student, is hired as an Art History instructor at Wellesley College for the 1953/54 school year. She is not an obvious choice as Wellesley is an exclusive upper crust institution where its faculty, students and alumni generally look down upon "State" universities. President Jocelyn Carr (Marian Seldes) runs Wellesley, the most conservation institution in the United States. Katherine intends to complete her PhD and is on probation at Wellesley for the first year.

Katherine quickly learns that her paper credentials do affect how her students treat her. She also learns that the students are book smart, but do not know how to think for themselves. Their parents and the school administration foster a predetermined path in life for the girls, namely, to stick to traditional mores and thoughts, with the primary goal of marrying into a good family.

Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst), Joan (Julia Stiles), Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal), Susan Delacorte (Laura Allen) & Connie (Ginnifer Goodwin) are Katherine's students in her art class & have read the entire books before the first class. They imply that Katherine can't impart any more knowledge & rudely leave her class. Amanda (Juliet Stevenson) & Nancy (Marcia Gay Harden) are Kath's apartment mates as she chose not to live in the college dorm due to its no male visitor rules. Nancy teaches speech, elocution and poise. Amanda is the College nurse and is a lesbian. Her companion was a teacher at the college who taught biology and has recently died. Bill Dunbar (Dominic West) is a fellow teacher at the college and has a reputation of sleeping with his students. Betty writes editorials in the school newspaper and has an out-sized influence on forming popular opinion on critical topics.

There are pockets of free thinking among faculty and the students, but those thoughts and associated actions are generally quashed by the overall tone of the school. Katherine decides to instill into her students her own beliefs of what is important in learning. She starts her next class by bringing topics and images from art history that are not in the prescribed books and encourages debate on their relative merits and demerits. Betty is ultra conservative & looks down upon any thoughts of women's liberation. Giselle is an erotic woman. Giselle is willing to accept that woman like Katherine can choose to have a life without a husband and a family, but Betty is unwilling to accept the possibility that any woman would want a career over a family. Giselle agrees with Katherine that a woman's only role is not to oversee the advancement of her husband.

Amanda is the school nurse & distributes contraceptives. Betty finds out, writes an article & gets Amanda fired via her mother (Donna Mitchell) who is the president of alumni association. Kath finds that Joan has ambitions to go to Yale for Law but is willing to sacrifice all for marriage. She encourages Joan to apply. Joan has a rich family boyfriend named Tommy (Topher Grace). Betty meanwhile sees Joan as her lifelong friend, getting married to rich families & raising kids in adjacent houses. Beth tells Joan that her fiance Spencer are good friends, and that Tommy is looking for an engagement ring for Joan. Meanwhile, Kath notices that Giselle is trying to get close to Bill Dunbar. In reality they had a falling out as Bill moved on to other conquests. Giselle gets jealous when she sees Dunbar making a love for Katherine. Giselle begs Dunbar to take her back, but he refuses and moves on.

Betty gets married to Spencer Jones (Jordan Bridges) while in school. As Betty leaves for her honeymoon the mood in the class improves as they start to appreciate other perspectives. Joan tells her she has been accepted to Yale & Betty is furious. Kath's boyfriend Paul (John Slattery) is visiting her over Christmas & she makes him sleep on the sofa due to Nancy's stupid house rules. Paul proposes to Kath, but she refuses.

Betty misses 6 classes due to her honeymoon & Kath threaten to fail her. Betty threatens consequences if she fails her. Betty tells Kath not to disrespect their traditions, just because she is subversive, while Kath wants her not to disrespect the class just because she is married. In her next editorial, Betty takes the shot at Katherine & says she is threatening the established marriage values & traditions at Wesley by encouraging girls to forsake marriage for their other ambitions in life.

Kath is hurt that she is being criticized for training tomorrow's leaders & not their wives. Katherine makes the students realize that the smartest girls in the country are being trained not to think for themselves in the name of tradition. She demonstrates how all contemporary art is designed to berate any free-thinking woman and idolize the ones who are wiling to sacrifice their lives at the altar of marriage. Dunbar makes Kath realize that changes take time and that she needs to allow the college to catch up with her thinking. Dunbar calls her the Mona Lisa, for her smile. Kath has sex with Dunbar. As the news of this affair spreads, Kath is judged by Nancy.

Connie is dating Charlie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Betty's cousin. Connie is from a normal family & not filthy rich like Betty. Betty manipulates Connie into believing that she was Charlie's mistress as he was already seeing a rich girl. Connie stops meeting Charlie & later she finds out that Charlie had no girl friend at that time & Betty just didn't want Connie as part of her family. Connie reconciles with Charlie.

Then Kath finds that even though Joan was accepted into Yale, that she would get married to Tommy & give up on Yale. Joan says to Kath that this was her choice. Joan says that not every housewife is a sellout of her dreams and ambitions. Betty criticizes Giselle for being a prostitute (for sleeping with Dunbar earlier and now having an affair with yet another older married man) but is hiding her own pain of her husband having an affair with another woman (Giselle saw Spencer in town with another girl in his arms). Giselle hugs Betty and she completely breaks down in her arms.

At the year end, enrollments for Kath's class for next year are the highest for any faculty. So, the board of directors extend their offer of employment to Kath conditionally to her accepting that she would only teach the prescribed syllabus & submit her class plans in advance for review & change, with Betty as her strongest supporter. Kath meets Bill's friend Stan and finds that Bill has never been to Europe (Bill had claimed he was an Italian) and had lied to her about everything. Kath breaks up with Bill.

By the end of the year, Kath's class fully accepts Kath & even discussed art in its true form. Betty files for divorce & gets an apartment with Giselle. Kath quits college & leaves for Europe.