It's football season in West Deerfield and the town's in a frenzy: Will the high school's Golden Bucks reclaim their former glory? For Sevi Norwood, WDHS' newest counselor, the pigskin panic is but a noisy backdrop as she struggles to find her place on a hostile faculty and prove herself a worthy replacement for their former counselor, the recently deceased and highly venerated "Miss Ola" Leonard.

When her beleaguered principal attempts to force her into "virtual dismissal," when a mysterious girl commits suicide on her front steps, and when a student aide reports nightmares of the perfect "Miss Ola" burning in hell, Sevi attempts to do what all good counselors do: make it better. Will she succeed, or will her first year as a school counselor be her last?