Free Love

On a warm evening in the summer of 1967, Nicky Knight pays a grudging visit to the home of Roger and Phyllis Fischer, old friends of his parents. The desultory evening is made even worse by the Fischers’ glum teenage daughter and by Phyllis’s unwelcome attempt at French cuisine. But the evening holds a surprise. While hunting down a child’s missing sandal in the dark garden, Phyllis and Nicky exchange a hot kiss, the spark that will lead Phyllis to upend her conventional life. Leaving home and family behind, she follows Nicky to his room in the Everglade, a once grand building and now home to a motley assortment of students, artists, and low-paid workers. While her sudden disappearance perplexes her well-meaning husband and abandoned children, Phyllis exults in her newfound freedom as much as she delights in Nicky’s seedy digs and louche friends. But can it last?