Lesli Bryant, a 37-year-old high school counsellor at Orange High School in Orange County, North Carolina, has been charged over alleged inappropriate behaviour with two male students, aged 17 and 18. She is accused of sending both teenagers nude images of herself and requesting images in return from the younger boy. The case matters because it has upended the settled, comfortable life she had built with her husband, Daniel Bryant, a Credit Suisse vice-president, in their hometown of Hillsborough.

The article contrasts the allegations with the couple's romantic beginnings, recalling how Daniel proposed in 2013 by spelling out a marriage proposal on the sands of Myrtle Beach and taking Lesli up in a helicopter to read it, followed by a beach wedding. The couple have two sons. Lesli was questioned in early June, charged on 1 July and handed herself in to deputies on 2 July. She faces charges including indecent liberties and has yet to enter a plea.