霍华德(凯文·克莱恩 Kevin Kline 饰)是一名在高中里任教的老师,一辈子勤勤恳恳的教书育人,获得了朋友和学生们的尊重。霍华德和女友艾米丽(琼·库萨克 Joan Cusack 饰)的爱情长跑终于要开花结果了,再过不久,他们就将携手步入婚姻的殿堂,许下相守一生的诺言。 一天,霍华德在艾米丽家,和他的未婚妻一起观看奥斯卡颁奖典礼,让他感到不可思议的是,影帝的殊荣竟然颁发给了他曾经的学生。深感自豪之余,这位新晋影帝的一番获奖感言却将霍华德打落谷底,在成千上万的观众面前,霍华德竟然“被出柜”了。果不其然,艾米丽大怒,霍华德跳进黄河也洗不清冤屈。All of Greenleaf, Indiana is watching this year's telecast of the Oscars as Hollywood heartthrob and local boy made good Cameron Drake has been nominated for his first ever Best Actor Oscar for his latest movie role as a gay soldier. Cameron's high school English teacher Howard Brackett is overjoyed when Cameron wins the award and mentions Howard's contribution in his acting life. That joy turns to horror when Cameron mentions to the worldwide audience that Howard is gay, especially horrific to Howard as he is engaged to fellow teacher Emily Montgomery, a woman with self-esteem issues as she had battled weight issues most of her life before she lost seventy-five pounds for the wedding. Howard's life is totally disrupted as Hollywood media descends on Greenleaf in order to get Howard's story. The rest of Greenleaf also openly wonders if Howard is indeed gay, as he exhibits many stereotypical gay tendencies, such as being neat, and loving music, dancing, poetry and Barbra Streisand. His cause is not helped in that his and Emily's relationship has not yet been consummated. The one person not concerned is Emily, who trusts Howard. As Howard continues to deny being gay to his family, friends and colleagues, he begins to examine himself hypercritically if only because if others believe he's gay, there may be some merit to the claim, as well as because of an incident that occurs with Hollywood reporter Peter Malloy, who is doing a week-long piece on Howard leading up to his and Emily's wedding. But Cameron Drake may be able to provide some overall perspective to what is happening to Howard and the frenzy he has caused.