Adaptation of the novel by Norma Levinson. After the death of her parents, Leah Lazenby, a Boston teacher of learning-impaired young people, seeks to supplement her modest income by turning the family homestead into a boarding house. She makes the parlor her living quarters and rents rooms to six tenants, who include a gentle classical cellist. Although Leah has ""a way with the wayward"" in her work, at home she's strictly a loner. Gradually, however, professional and personal crises draw her out of her shell and awaken her to the lives of her boarders.