After a judo session, 4th-degree Black Belt Lily, is confronted by a threatening young man on the street. He is so monstrous, that she cannot dispose of him and frantically flees into the nearest subway entrance. This youth, Paco, is the son of a captain in Peru's Shining Path rebel army. His father has sent him to New York City with two military guards to keep him safe from the civil war. Paco remembers the woman who escaped him and wants her. Are destined to meet again?

Lily is a teacher, assisting the principal at the Anna Silver School in New York's Lower East Side in the 1990's. P.S. 20 has a rich tradition of renown alumni and now serves a new population of mostly Latino immigrants. Her husband, Bobby, is the gym teacher and her devoted protector. They and teacher colleagues pursue justice but the police are unable to track down Paco.

Can Lily avenge the attacks on her and her colleagues? Will a descendant of the Livingstons of the Hudson Valley be able to use her wealth to shield them from Paco? Will the teachers find deliverance in love and loyalty?