Sandy Cooper dreamed of playing college football, but an injury set his life on an uneventful course as a coach and guidance counselor in a suburban junior high school in the1970s. Over the course of one turbulent year, this dutiful husband and teacher becomes embroiled in a tortured relationship with the mother of a troubled student and the exposure of a brutal crime. Michael Oren combines gripping suspense with crises of the heart and the vagaries of destiny.