William Hundert is a passionate and principled Classics professor who finds his tightly-controlled world shaken and inexorably altered when a new student, Sedgewick Bell, walks into his classroom. What begins as a fierce battle of wills gives way to a close student-teacher relationship, but results in a life lesson for Hundert that will still haunt him a quarter of a century later.

Kevin Kline
as William Hundert

Emile Hirsch
as Sedgewick Bell

Jesse Eisenberg
as Louis Masoudi

Rishi Mehta
as Deepak Mehta

Paul Dano
as Martin Blythe

Rob Morrow
as James Ellerby

Embeth Davidtz
as Elizabeth

Edward Herrmann
as Headmaster Woodbridge

Helen Carey
as Miss Johnston

Molly Regan
as Miss Peters