Margaret Dean is a middle-aged Chemistry teacher at a North London Girls' Grammar School. People think she's a lonely spinster, but underneath her austere surface lurk hidden, and unsatisfied, passions. These are suddenly aroused with the arrival of Kate Drouet, the new English teacher, fresh from university. Seized by fierce desire for her younger colleague, Margaret pursues Kate, and they begin a sexually intense, lifechanging relationship. Backlash is a psychologically thrilling - and at times chilling - story of lesbian fixation and control.