Oleanna

College student Carol, midterm, goes without an appointment to discuss what looks to be her path to a failing grade with one of her professors, John, at his office. Despite doing everything he tells her and the other students to do in class including reading the book he wrote, she just doesn't understand much of the terminology and thus cannot grasp the concepts. John, conversely, is preoccupied to think much about Carol, he imminently going to meet his wife to deal with some issues regarding the house they are in the process of buying - his and Carol's meeting continually interrupted by telephone calls about the house - and as he is in the final steps to being granted tenure. As their meeting progresses, its tone changes to being more personal in many respects, including John, in seeing Carol's distress about her imminent failing grade in light of being a bright student, suggesting dropping many of the traditional constructs of schooling including "knowledge" yardsticks in already giving her an A if they routinely have one-on-one meetings just to discuss the concepts, and as he tells anecdotes of his own personal life to illustrate what he is trying to convey to her. Two subsequent meetings between the two are then shown, both on his request. The first is after he learns that she has filed charges against him with the tenure committee of inappropriate behavior stemming not only from that encounter but it in conjunction with things he does and says in class, he hoping to clear the matter with her outside of the official channels of the tenure committee. And the second and final subsequent meeting is following the results of the tenure committee's investigation into the matter, during that meeting when John learns the full extent of Carol's accusations and what she and the group she now represents want from him.