In New York City, the lives of a lawyer, an actuary, a house-cleaner, a professor, and the people around them intersect as they ponder order and happiness in the face of life's cold unpredictability.

New York attorney William Boyals has escaped the Louisiana bayou of his childhood, but he must return to investigate the death of a childhood friend who, like Boyals himself, was both black and gay.

A man and a woman who have pledged never to fall in love again meet in a gay bar.

A New Jersey teen faces her impending adulthood, dreaming of a life as a successful New York artist. But when she gets caught up in the carefree sport of pre-AIDS sex and drugs, her future becomes less certain.