Public schoolmaster Crocker-Harris has become a bitter, disillusioned man. Stuck in a loveless marriage with a wife who openly cheats on him, the enthusiasm he once showed for his career and his pupils has long since vanished and `The Crock' has become a figure of disdain among the students whose life he has made a misery. With ill-health forcing him to resign his long-standing post a simple act of kindness from one boy has a profund impact on the seemingly heartless master.