Plot: 1979, Santa Barbara. Long divorced fifty-five year old chain smoker Dorothea Fields, a product of wanting to work during the war years, is an independently and liberally minded draftsperson. She has not had a steady man in her life since the divorce. Despite having a plethora of other people in their lives as Dorothea's answer to almost every situation is to invite people over for dinner, she and her fifteen year old son, Jamie Fields, are the only other biological family each has per se in a meaningful way. Dorothea wants to give Jamie as much freedom and responsibility as possible to make informed decisions and mistakes from which to learn. As Jamie is at the age of transitioning into a grown-up and as she doesn't recognize her son anymore as he is a teen of his day (the punk music about which she is truly mystified), Dorothea is still concerned, without that male influence, that he won't turn into the adult she would want. As Jamie and their male boarder William, an Earth child who is tasked with doing the renovations on their house, haven't really bonded in that buddy/buddy or father figure way, Dorothea turns to two other women in their lives to help her provide guidance to Jamie through this transition period. One is their other boarder, twenty-four year old Abbie Porter, an aspiring photographer, who is an inherently sad woman out of her own life confusion, and an avowed feminist. Two is Jamie's best friend since childhood, seventeen year old Julie Hamlin, who he's loved all his life and with who he has wanted to have sex ever since he hit puberty. The daughter of a therapist who forces her to be a participant in her teen group therapy sessions, Julie has long been sexually active, albeit not with Jamie, the sex about which she is rather nonchalant in liking it sometimes, and not liking it others. This situation with this collective is as much about each person's development at this phase in their life with these other people as it is about Jamie becoming a responsible male adult, especially as he too is concerned about his mother, who, despite her independence, he feels has not moved on since the divorce.
Alternative Plot: In 1979 Santa Barbara, Calif., Dorothea Fields is a determined single mother in her mid-50s who is raising her adolescent son, Jamie, at a moment brimming with cultural change and rebellion. Dorothea enlists the help of two younger women -- Abbie, a free-spirited punk artist living as a boarder in the Fields' home and Julie, a savvy and provocative teenage neighbor -- to help with Jamie's upbringing.
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