Sophie is the daughter of the Acting Headmaster at Apa School for Girls and looking forward to his promotion to Headmaster. Her step-mother had been the Headmistress of the school and to Sophie, who had grown up there, it was the logical step when she died, for her father to step in.

The arrival of Garrick Saxby to take the job threw Sophie and her view of the perceived injustice coloured her first reactions when meeting him. To add insult to injury, Apa school was to become co-educational with a boys school joining them on the lush rural site.