Mesa Beach

Alan French has left his wife, Luise, and their six-year-old daughter, Dee, in Los Angeles and fled to an indolent beach town. It is summer 1963. He fantasizes that he loves Agnes, his former college professor, who now edits the Mesa Beach News. Luise, back with her parents in San Marino, still loves Alan and regrets the divorce. Alan gets involved with Agnes's guilt-ridden lifestyle, and Luise's ex-fiancAA(c), Chris Daniels, and wife, Jean. Then there's Watha, the Jesus-freak mulatto son of his landlady, Elsie; an apartment neighbor, Greg, with an insecure fiancAA(c)e, Marilyn; and Greg's roommate, Kurt, a disturbed teen whose outward charm covers sexual perversity and violent impulses that create havoc and aggravate jealousies. Lovers reach a critical mass on a post-Labor Day freak-of-nature weekend that leads to denunciations and betrayals, threatening hope and life. An unexpected and bizarre death realigns relationships, for better or worse, leaving the seaside resort littered with casualties of love.