Rich-kid Derrick shares his trendy Manhattan loft with fellow college students Cathy and Travis. When Derrick sarcastically defends gossip as the basis of history and religion in his communications class, his professor heartily disagrees. As a result, Derrick and Cathy decide to spread a rumor as an unofficial class project. However, the rumor they start for fun, involving a puritanical student's secret sex life, soon rages out of control when accusations of rape and attempted suicide begin to surface.