The Dance features three couples whose stories are entwined together at a dance. Harvard student Cameron reluctantly agrees to take a break from his busy student life and go to a dance organized by his English literature professor, Charles Gordon. Cameron finds the nerve to ask his older brother's ex-girlfriend Zoe, a beautiful, focused and rather intimidating dance student. Zoe, with some trepidation, accepts the offer but the two only stay at the dance long enough to make Cameron's ex-girlfriend jealous. Meanwhile, bachelor Howard, a witty, successful and career-obsessed day trader gets pressed into acting as emcee for the dance. His date is Alyson, a sweet, kind-hearted single mother of two who is really excited about her first post-divorce date. At first she shrugs off Howard's insensitive and sarcastic wit, but when it hits too close to home, Alyson confronts him about it. When he's teaching at school, Charles is the ultimate genius on romance and Shakespeare.