Communications student Tanja De Roover didn't study for married professor Rummens's college course, expecting the questions in advance as his lover, but he had ti play fair with his teaching assistant Dirk Lauwerijs in attendance, so she fails. The next night, she dies from an asthmatic episode in the mud near her bike. The professor isn't the only one with a dubious alibi, but he's blackmailed by Tanja's vicariously greedily-ambitious ma. Tanja also promised to pass on the questions to her ex-lover, classmate Steven Onsia, a tormented heavy drinker who also failed the exam.