When the orphaned William refuses his uncles' proposal to become a clergyman and angrily leaves his job in the counting-house of his brother's mill, he decides to accept a position as an English teacher at a boys' school in Brussels. When his career leads him to take up an additional post at a girls' school nearby, William becomes emotionally involved with the manipulative headmistress of the establishment, Mademoiselle Reuter. The tensions rise until one of his pupils and fellow teachers – for whom he has tender feelings – is suddenly dismissed and is nowhere to be found.

Based on Charlotte Brontë's own autobiographical experience in Brussels as a teacher and only published posthumously, The Professor was Charlotte Brontë's first attempt at full-length fiction and bears all the hallmarks of her future work, with touches of genius and an unparalleled sharpness of style.