Three-Martini Lunch

In 1950s Manhattan three young people struggle to make their way. Eden Katz arrives from Indiana with a purpose: to become an editor in a New York publishing house. She lands a job as a secretary for one firm but finds her ambition thwarted by the double whammy of sexism and anti-Semitism. Well-born Cliff Nelson, a college dropout from Connecticut, wants nothing more than to show up his "old man," a famous publisher, by writing the great American novel. Although he possesses a wealth of connections, arrogance, and narcissism, Cliff is sadly lacking as an author. The gifted Harlem-born Miles Tillman, a recent graduate of Columbia University, has both a flair for prose and an absorbing story to tell. He struggles with the racism of the time, the secrets of his father's history, and acceptance of his own sexuality. Eden, Cliff, and Miles cross paths in Greenwich Village; their intersecting ambitions and personal weaknesses lead to hurt and betrayals and the inevitable experience of life's hard lessons.