It is 1981 and the Clarence Thomas hearings are being widely discussed. Chet Nowak, the son of a Polish steelworker, has been forced by his boss to undergo unwanted counseling for sexual harassment of a gay subordinate. Chet is in a romantic relationship with Shelby, the daughter of a Jewish Southern businessman. Their relationship is becoming one of total honesty and trust, something neither has ever experienced before. They often share the intimate, sometimes humorous details of their past relationships. But when Shelby describes having been coerced into a sexual relationship with her boss years earlier, Chet is shaken and furious. He has begun to trust and talk candidly with his therapist. When he shares his anger with her, she fears that he may become either suicidal or violent toward someone else. A vicious murder in town threatens the trust that had built up between Chet and Shelby and also results in him sharing a traumatic event from his past with his therapist.
