One summer on a remote Minnesota lake, a half-broken teenage artist falls madly in love with and obsessively pursues a muse twice his age. Resisting his advances, she helps transform him in a wildly unexpected way.

SYNOPSIS:

David, an audacious fourteen-year-old artist, is stranded for the summer with his eccentric family

on a remote Minnesota lake. Kayaking up the wild, presumably uninhabited lake,

he is surprised to discover a remarkable, thirty-year-old wilderness guide, Vanessa,

staying at a once-abandoned cabin.

She thoroughly captivates him. He, in turn, charms her. They spend afternoons together in light-hearted conversations, and she eventually poses for him.

Meanwhile, David’s home life - his alternately loving and raging father, his aloof mother and his

semi-destructive kid brother - is highly challenging. His seven-year-old sister is his only delight.

When the kid brother accidentally almost kills himself, the family leaves for the city.

Obsessed with Vanessa, David anguishes through the long Midwest winter, wondering if he will

see her again. When she appears at the lake the following summer, their connection deepens

as artist and muse and as mentor and “student,” challenging and enjoying each other in

multiple, surprising ways. At fifteen, David convinces Vanessa to model nude. Though she

discourages his growing attachment, the following summer he persuades her to teach him –

through touch, without consummation - about connected love-making. The summer after,

when he is seventeen, they make love.

Being apart from his Lady of the Lake is almost unbearable for the teenager. Deeply concerned

for his well-being, Vanessa breaks things off. Following failed attempts to change her mind,

David makes creative plans to end his life. But after considerable suffering, he finds that his

journey of love has opened his heart. Recovering from Vanessa, David leaves home for the first

time to visit a former girlfriend, but winds up canceling his rendezvous, to rescue a stranger.