Guilty

Gilbert Adkins' stellar 30-year career as a high-school chemistry teacher, which includes many awards and letters of thanks and admiration from past students, is threatened when he is accused of sexual assault by current senior Devon Cavanor. Gilbert vehemently denies the accusation, including to his surviving family, his half-brother Gary Foster, and his biological daughter June Gailey, now teaching in Uganda on contract, who did not know about him until she searched him out when she was in her mid-twenties. The two now have a loving father-daughter relationship. What is making the accusation stick is that Devon's story is corroborated by Traci Scott, a fellow senior new to the school who states that she witnessed the incident in Mr. Adkins' classroom. Gilbert can understand the lie perpetrated by Devon, a privileged young woman who does whatever she must to get what she wants--and has a beef with him. He cannot, however, understand why Traci would lie. In reality, Traci is an insecure young woman having difficulties trying to find her way in this new school. In part because of a lie perpetrated by someone against her in the past, she wanted to support Devon, whom she thought people wouldn't believe unless there was an eyewitness account, so she made up the story of witnessing the incident despite having nothing against Mr. Adkins. Traci also does not fully understand the implication of the lie on Mr. Adkins' teaching career. The situation worsens when a suicide note is found in Mr. Adkins' abandoned vehicle next to a bridge and his dead body is eventually pulled from the water. June, who has rushed back from Uganda to support her father, does not believe he committed suicide, especially as he had so strongly stated to her the want to clear his name. With help from family friend Steve Dawson, who works for the school district, June is able to get a job at the high school as a substitute teacher, her goal to get closer to both Devon and Traci without them knowing that she is Mr. Adkins' daughter, all in an effort to find out what's going on, most specifically to find out if Traci is lying and why. If Devon was involved in murdering Mr. Adkins, June snooping around or Traci having remorse about the lie, especially if she truly doesn't believe Mr. Adkins did what Devon says, could place June and Traci's lives in danger.