Flashpoint

Plot

From America's most popular lesbian writer, twice winner of the prestigious Lambda Literary Award, a powerful, long-awaited chronicle of lesbian and gay lives. Published on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Stonewall, this is a novel for our times.

It is 1991, the last weekend in September. A political decision to be announced this weekend in California will signal far-reaching ramifications for America's lesbian and gay community.

At a cabin in a Southern California mountain resort, three lesbians and a gay man wait in mutual antagonism for Donnelly, the woman who has summoned them here, the woman with whom they have all shared a part of their lives.

Publisher Bradley Jones was once married to her. Cabin owner Pat Decker, a teacher nearing retirement, took her away from Bradley.

Averill Calder Harmon, in the topmost rank of professional golfers on the LPGA tour, lured Donnelly away from Pat. Querida Quemada, a successful young Chicana professional, is Donnelly's current partner.

Donnelly, an activist connected at the highest levels of the national scene, knows about the forthcoming political decision. In the certainty of her connection to these four people, she is convinced that the time is now for each of them to take vital and profoundly personal action.

But even Donnelly cannot dream of the extent to which this weekend will be a watershed, with consequences reaching far beyond any of them.