An argument ensues as Wally confronts Frank for his drinking Frank punches Wally and calls him a faggot before fleeing again. However, a drunken Frank returns, claiming he just went for a swim.
Wally and Beth return to the motel, where Wally grieves for Frank’s supposed death. Wally and Beth discover Frank’s clothes sitting on a dock by the water, but Frank is nowhere to be seen. A final flashback reveals that Frank told Samuel they could not be together as it displeased God, and Samuel drowned himself in the lake shortly after.
A panicked Beth rushes to inform Wally, who drives them to the nearby lake where he suspects Frank went. An emotional Frank flees, driving away erratically while drinking heavily. At the reading of the will, Frank learns he has been cut out of his inheritance, and the will bitterly exposes Frank’s homosexuality to the family. To cope with these memories, Frank begins secretly drinking he asks Beth not to tell Wally as Frank is a recovering alcoholic.īeth and Frank arrive home to attend the funeral. However, Wally rents a car and follows them most of the way there when Frank catches him, he agrees to let him come but stay in a motel during the funeral, fearful of what the locals might do if they discover their true relationship.Īlong their journey, Frank has flashbacks to his teenage years and a sexual relationship he had with another boy named Samuel his father caught them in bed together and called Frank an abomination against God. Wally asks to come along and meet Frank’s family, but Frank refuses, not yet ready to reveal the truth to them. Frank agrees to drive Beth back to South Carolina for the funeral. The next day, Beth’s grandfather and Frank’s father, Daddy Mac, dies of a sudden heart attack. He pleads with her not to tell anyone else in the family his secret, and she agrees. Frank rejects the sexual advance on Bruce's part, caring for Beth when she gets too drunk. Through events that happen at the party, she discovers that Frank is secretly gay and has been living with a man named Walid (“Wally”) for over ten years. Her uncle Frank Bledsoe is a college professor there, and is the relative she feels closest to as he is more refined and thoughtful than the rest of the family.īeth meets a boyfriend, Bruce, and shows up with him unannounced to a party at Frank’s apartment. In 1973, 18-year-old Beth Bledsoe moves from her home in Creekville, South Carolina, to attend college in New York City.