THE STORY: The setting is a boarding house in the mountains of New Mexico, where a group of varied characters have been thrown together by the vicissitudes of fate. They are dominated by Virginia, a strong and passionate woman, whose past is clouded in mystery. Her affair with another boarder, a bearded painter named Caldren, holds promise of happiness for them both but is suddenly disturbed by the arrival of her former lover. Brigan, a man who once commanded her as she now commands others, but who is now ill and weak. However, the memories they share are still powerful, and their effect is soon felt by all the others: Caldren; his young sidekick, Werth; Brigan’s estranged wife; and the landlady’s young daughter, with whom Werth has formed an attachment. In the end there are hard decisions which must be made—decisions in which illusions may be shattered, but through which must come whatever happiness these lonely people can hope to know.
“This is Lanford Wilson territory—a country kin to
The Hot L Baltimore…” —The New York Times.
