Mr. Heary is anxious to put on Tom's gritty, unpublished play for Thanksgiving. But one of the school's biggest backers wants to see something that has Pilgrims.

Tom learns that even a sensitive man of the 90s can have his faults when a school study suggests that he and other Harkin Academy teachers have been favoring boys over girls.

Everyone swoons over the handsome, charismatic, popular new Italian teacher. When Tom's the only one who dislikes Giorgio, it's written off as jealousy, despite his best effort to prove the newcomer a pretentious, dishonest phony.

An obnoxious millionaire buys the school, and wants Tom to be the new headmaster.