[3] Laura Reynolds is a free-spirited, unwed single mother living with her young son Danny in an isolated beach house in Big Sur, California.

She makes a modest living as an artist and homeschools her son out of concern that he will be compelled to follow stifling conventional social norms in a regular school.

Danny has gotten into some trouble with the law through two incidents, one of indecently touching a girl his age, and the shooting of a fawn to see whether it's a fun thing to do.

He has trouble fitting in because his mother's homeschooling has placed him far in advance of boys his age in many subjects; the standard course of instruction at the school leaves him restless and bored.

Laura tells herself that Edward is a fling like her other lovers, but to her surprise she finds herself falling in love with him, becoming jealous of his wife Claire.

Ward Hendricks, a jealous former lover of Laura, who had paid for her two years of art studies in exchange for her being his mistress, exposes the affair by making a remark to Edward within earshot of his wife.

At first Claire is distraught, but later they quietly discuss it in the light of how their lives diverged from the idealism of the early years of their marriage.

When Edward tells Laura that he confessed to his wife, she is outraged at what she perceives as an invasion of her privacy, and they part angrily.

[4] The theme music for the film was "The Shadow of Your Smile", by Johnny Mandel, with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster.

Pocket Books published a novelization of the screenplay by Robert Hemenway, who would continue to write fiction and would later become a renowned American educator and biographer.