After receiving a full-ride scholarship to Mills College for Girls, it appears Sarah's future is clear ...until she walks into a poetry class led by Mr. Haddings, a student teacher from the nearby University of Washington. Suddenly, life on the UW campus seems very appealing, and Sarah finds herself using her poetry journal to subtly declare her feelings for Mr. Haddings. Convinced he is flirting back, she sets off for school in the rain with a poem in her back pocket-one that says how she really feels. But everything changes when Mr. Haddings feels a thud on his front bumper and finds Sarah in the street with blood pooling beneath her.