The peaceful life of Spencer Ashby, a school teacher in a small town in the state of New York, comes crashing down the morning that Belle Sherman -the daughter of a friend of his wife whom the couple had been hosting for some time- is found dead in his house. Being declared the main suspect in the investigation, this naive, shy and somewhat self-conscious man knows firsthand the humiliation of police interrogations. How long will it take for him to collapse under the weight of such suspicion? What is a person capable of when he feels completely cornered?