It's 1959 Reno, Nevada. Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) is an English Lit professor at Columbia in NYC. She comes to stay at a ranch owned by Frances Parker to establish residency in Nevada for a quickie divorce. She's been married to another professor for 12 years in a professional marriage. She's willing to give him everything. Cay Rivvers (Patricia Charbonneau) is a wild child who lives at the ranch as Frances' surrogate daughter. She's relatively open as a lesbian considering the times but she still gets hit on by men. She finds herself falling for the newly arrived older woman.

It's not necessarily the most dramatic or the most well made lesbian movie. The lack of drama is a triumph in itself. This time, lesbianism doesn't end in tragic deaths or finding a man or insanity. It also has an amazing lesbian love scene and not just for its eroticism. These characters are compelling and shockingly normal played by two terrific actresses. Their relationship doesn't destroy them but actually leaves them fulfilled.

When it comes to love movies - usually we get a man loves a woman and hopefully vice versa. In this case we get two women ... or at least one that is quite sure what she wants and who she loves. At a time when love like that was more than just forbidden .... and even those who may have feelings of ... well let's just say even they had issues to deal with those things.

A womans touch - no pun intended - something the movie really needed and profited from. I'm not saying that a man wouldn't have done a solid job with the source novel, but you feel that it was crucial to have a woman for this. Not just for the intimate scenes. This really is an underrated movie, with superb performances - not just for the time it was made, but in general.

I've seen this movie at least a dozen times and it never fails to make me cry. It's a simple love story, but the fact that it's two women in love in Nevada in the 1950's gives it special significance. Unlike a lot of lesbian movies that were made in the 1980's, this one isn't all doom and gloom. It's actually a movie that will make you remember being young, impulsive and in love. It leaves the

viewer feeling hopeful about the future. Vivian Bell is a professor who comes to Nevada in the 1950's for a quickie divorce from her husband. While there she

meets Cay Rivers and Cay opens up a whole new world to her and makes

Vivian realize there's more to life than her stuffy, professional existence in New York. In addition, this movie has the most touching, intimate, erotic, and soulful love scene that I have EVER seen between 2 women in a movie.