In depth lesbian relationship between single "out" playwright, Jennie Clark, and closeted stage director, Barbara Matthews, married and mother of two teenage daughters. As the two women are drawn into an all consuming affair, Jennies accepts an LA based offer to write the book for an 18th century French musical. Under the guise of research, she whisks Babs away to the "City of Lights." For three glorious weeks, the couple explores Paris, Pigalle, northern France, and each other. Once back in the States, Jennie departs for LA. The work goes smoothly and within three months, a backers audition takes place. Ironically, the next morning, word is received that the rights have been sold out from under the LA producer. Jennie's Broadway breakthrough is scuttled. Jennie, relieved to be home, struggles with her new play, writing strong lesbian characters. Babs' career, however, takes a sudden jump forward when she becomes head of the Theatre Department at an impressive Community Center. Babs becomes increasingly fearful of being discovered in an "unacceptable" liaison. When Jennie is offered an Off-Broadway theatre, rent-free, to produce her new play, she immediately asks Babs to direct. During a pre-production break, Jennie and Babs spend a warm summer evening strolling through Greenwich Village. The couple stops at Crazy Mary's, an off-beat lesbian bar where they encounter the Rasp, a two hundred-fifty pound bouncer, protective of her leather-clad clientele and hostile to the uptown slightly uptight couple. Jennie treats the incident with her usual candid humor. For Babs, however, every negative thought and feeling regarding her lesbian-self is reinforced. Jennie realizes she and Babs have perpendicular views of lesbian. At age forty-five, Jennie is forced to take a hard look into her own psychological flaws and reexamine her values.