Responding to widespread criticism that SUM is really the "State University of Men," departments across campus have been scrambling, under orders from the administration, to demonstrate their sensitivity to women's issues. So Nick, a Wharton scholar, has been chosen to mount the Wharton conference because his department chair and colleagues assume that Edith Wharton is a safe and uncontroversial writer.

Unfortunately, they're wrong. Dead wrong. Wharton studies are a battleground between two viciously rival Wharton societies, one conservative, one radical - and Nick is forced to invite both groups, despite their history of bitter discord. Intruding early on into this already volatile mix is Chloe DeVore, a famous and controversial writer who just can't seem to stay away from SUM. Is DeVore coming to the conference because she has a grudge against Nick?

When disaster strikes in the form of a murder, Nick has to find out who's behind the killing or his career at SUM may be over. Will Wharton's novels supply the key?