The story of Coleman Silk (Anthony Hopkins), a distinguished professor at a prestigious New England college whose professional life is shattered by allegations of racism and whose personal life is infected with the cancer of a lie he has been living with for fifty years. His career and reputation in ruin, Silk begins a dynamic resurrection through two new relationships: one, a friendship with the writer Nathan Zuckerman (Gary Zinise) whom he intrigues with his story, the other a scandalous affair with a young woman (Nicole Kidman).