Short description
NOTES ON A SCANDAL is the story of Barbara Covett, a hard-nosed spinster schoolteacher, and her poisonous friendship with fellow teacher Sheba Hart. Barbara one day happens upon Sheba dallying in the art room with a 15-year-old student. She tells Sheba that she must end the affair at once, but decides not to report her to the school, and instead, to use her knowledge of the indiscretion to draw Sheba closer to her, and put her in her debt.
Long description
Barbara Covett (Dame Judi Dench), a lonely veteran and schoolteacher, takes the edge off her loneliness by writing in her journal. When Sheba Hart (Cate Blanchett), joins the faculty as an art teacher, Barbara watches her and writes in her diary about her clothing and her care-free manner. Despite her disdain for this woman, Barbara finds herself reaching out to her. Sheba invites her to dinner to meet her husband (Bill Nighy) and 16-year-old daughter and a younger boy with Downs Syndrome. Barbara immediately sees them as competition to be beaten in the battle for Sheba's attention. Barbara finds Sheba in a classroom having sex with a 15-year-old student, Steven (Andrew Simpson). She promises not to tell anyone but insists that the affair must end immediately. Sheba agrees but finds herself drawn back to the boy. Sheba is appalled when she discovers that Barabara might have a sexual interest in her. The relationship between the two reaches a crisis point and in revenge, Barbara starts the scandal that rock their lives in ways they never imagined.