the last 1950s , the United States , it is the community on the role of women to re-examine the definition of the era , the role of women in society is more and more attention . He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley , full of liberal reforms ideal woman , Katherine Watson ( Julia Roberts ) came to the well-known Wellesley College as a professor of art history , came to the well-known women's colleges , Catherine found the Institute for student's education is not to teach them how to get the knowledge of their subject of interest , nor the emphasis on psycho-educational , but the students' success or failure is defined as marriage . Catherine and not like other teachers , she not only challenge some of the practices of the school , the rules . And encourage students to explore their own interests , and bold to practice their ideas . Such a school's traditional forces as "otherness" of women's ability to successfully achieve her purpose , her students out of bondage, to find themselves ? Or final , waiting for her traditional concept of the traditional forces violent "attack " ...