Gabriel Early is a student in his last year at a Catholic high school in Vermont. He has done a lot of bad things on campus. He is in danger of being expelled and the nuns have no way of rehabilitating him until he meets a young nun, Sister Clara from the school's adjoining convent. They fall in love with each other, but they are in trouble when they are caught kissing. Although the Mother Superior highly disapproves of the two in a relationship, they continue their relationship. Gabriel brings Clara to meet his parents who run a maple syrup farm. The relationship only gets "sweeter" towards the end of the book.