It's mid-spring at State College and Dr. Alexis Brown's boss, Dr. Dorothea Watson, orders her to create another can't miss, hands-on, ten-week summer course for summer interns and undergraduate geology students. Alexis is having problems coming up with a topic. She's also growing disillusioned with her playgirl life at State College. Every summer, she dates the top graduate student in her class. Every fall, she breaks up with the same student in a relationship that is only meant to be a summer fling.
Alexis finally finds a topic she can investigate: a series of sinkholes in a farm owned by a Thomas Harris, the deceased husband of her college roommate and ex-lover, Isabella Johnson Harris, except she doesn't know Isabella's identity at the time. To make matters interesting, she discovers the young woman she accused of helping one of her students plagiarize a final paper is Isabella's youngest daughter. When she discovers the connections and relationships, it's too late to cancel the course and so she soldiers on.
Unfortunately, Isabella doesn't feel the same way. When she looks at Alexis, she sees betrayal and lies. She grabs her grandfather's old rifle and shoots rock salt at Alexis. The salt pellets deliberately miss Alexis but cause her to jump for cover into a series of deep, wet, freshly formed mud puddles. Thus begins the start of an unforgettable summer project and the women behind it.