J. M Coetzee

After years teaching Romantic poetry at the Technical University of Cape Town, David Lurie, middle-aged and twice divorced, has an impulsive affair with a student. The affair sours; he is denounced and summoned before a committee of inquiry. Willing to admit his guilt, but refusing to yield to pressure to repent publicly, he resigns and retreats to his daughter Lucy's isolated smallholding. For a time, his daughter's influence and the natural rhythms...

The curiously contrived family of Simon, Ines and David resettle in the city of Estrella, after being forced to flee their previous home in Novilla following a dispute with the education authorities. There they seek to continue the schooling of the headstrong and gifted boy, David. David starts attending an unusual Dance Academy and falls under the influence of his charismatic teacher and the unnerving doorman, Dmitri.