1953年，二战刚刚结束不久。坐落在美国马萨诸塞州、被誉为“没有男子的常青藤”的卫斯理女子学院，新来了位艺术史 老师，名叫凯瑟琳.沃森，她是个美丽成熟的女人，刚刚从加州柏克莱大学洛杉矶分校毕业，在大学里接受了自由改革思 想，立志要成为一名杰出的教授。
她满怀一腔热忱走上了讲坛，却被学生们当场来了个下马威——这群出身富裕家庭、有 着良好艺术基础的女孩子们把老师当场嘲弄了一番。无奈之下凯瑟琳只好狼狈收场。但一个年轻女子能走上大学讲坛讲 授艺术史必然有她过人之处，果然，凯瑟琳在下一次上课时对学生的恶作剧进行了反击，她拿出了许多另类的艺术品， 许多课本上没有介绍却绝对具有冲击力的作品，使得同学们瞠目结舌，赢回一点点尊严。
凭借自己率直诚恳的态度、丰 富的艺术史知识以及风趣幽默的授课风格，凯瑟琳赢得了学生们的尊敬和爱戴，逐渐在学生中树立起威信。她真心喜欢 上了这群青春活泼的女孩子，特别是温柔甜美的乔恩、对待生活有独到见解的吉赛尔和言辞尖刻的贝蒂，这些个性鲜明 、聪明智慧的女孩子在迂腐守旧的校方看来实在是太“另类”了一些，巴不得赶快送她们毕业了事。然而在凯瑟琳看来， 这正是她们与众不同之处，她在教书之余也关心着这些学生的未来。在当时，虽然女性的地位渐渐受到重视，妇女解放 运动进行得如火如荼，但上层社会封建思想仍旧非常严重，整个国家的大环境也在致力于将在二战中走出家门走向社会 的妇女们重新劝说回家，女孩子虽然被允许进入大学接受高等教育，但学院对学生的教育不是教导她们如何获得自己感 兴趣的学科知识，而是把学生的成功与否定义为今后的婚姻，女子手指上一枚订婚戒指的价值远远胜过她受过的良好教 育。接受自由思想熏陶、充满理想与热情的凯瑟琳为她们可以预期的毕业即意味着步入婚姻的结局感到惋惜，她大胆地 向陈腐的教学制度发起挑战，在校方的压力之下始终坚持自己的教学理念，鼓励学生要把握自己的前途命运，勇敢坚持 理想与信念，纵使遭遇困难，也不要轻言的放弃……
人们都说蒙娜丽莎的微笑都是最美最神秘的，每有人猜得透她微 笑得含义。一千个人就有一千个解释，于是每一个人都有一个“蒙娜丽莎的微笑”。 而在我看来她的微笑是那么慈 祥和宽容，那微笑似乎启蒙着每一位女性都有一个世界，都是可以很自持，宽容，独立，坚韧的。

In a haste, to be modified. ------------------------------ in 1953, soon after WWII, the socalled "evergreen without men" wesley college, located in Massachusetts, comes in a new art history teacher named Catherine waltson ,a beautiful and mature woman who just graduated from Berkly uni, LA depart. where she received liberty reformation ideas and dedicated to becoming a outstanding professor. when she stepped on the platform full of passion for the first time, she received a bitter welcome from her students, who come from rich familes with art basics. Catherine has to end her lecture awkwardly.However this lady has her trump card, and she shows it to counterattack her pupils' prank by showing them a few special artworks. the walloping artworks rarely introduced in textbooks overwhelmed all the students, and Cath win her respect back.
By the honest attitude, profound history knowlegde,and humorous lecturing style, cath receives warm welcome and respect from her pupils and gradually establishs her prestige among them. She loves these young girls, especially sweet joan, own-sighted 吉赛尔 and vitriolic betty. they r performing too "special" to the scholastics of the school, but cath cherishes their larruping personalities and cares about their future. Although women is gaining their social esteems at that time, the upper classes are still stick to the feodal ideas, the atomosphere of the country is also persuading woman back to houses who had just been into the society during wwII. Girls are admitted into uni for higher education but what they learn is not how to abtain the knowledge they r interested in but to indoctrinate marrige the ultimate criteria for their success. cath, who has full of liberty, passion and ideality in her mind, feels sorry for their destiny as they'll get married right after graduation, so she starts to challenge the trite education system bravely in spite of the pressure exerted from the uni and encourages her students to hold on to their will in order to master their own destiny no matter what kind of difficulties they encounter.
everybody says Mona Lisa's smile is the most charming and mysterious one and nobody is able to understand the essence of her smile, so one thousand people have one thousand explanations. as to me, the smile is filled with kindness and tolerance, it seems to mean that every female has a world of her own, which is confident, tolerant, independent and tough.