SPENCER'S POND is the story of Jules, a smart-mouthed teenager from Manhattan who discovers her sexuality one summer at a rural pond. Launching into a relationship with a neighboring boy, Jules is caught in a downward spiral which explodes in an unpredictable act of violence. Even as her world is shattered, Jules finds strength in the unlikely family of eccentrics who love her. In the wry, wise-cracking voice of adolescence, Jules describes her mother, Judith, a libidinous hack writer with a mysterious past, her mother's boyfriend, Shiva, a manic-depressive snake-oil salesman, and her godfather, Malcolm, an elderly gay poet who provides Jules with the wisdom she needs to survive. In the end, Jules reminds us of what is good in us, what retains hope even under fire. Jules is the adolescent soul in all of us that struggles against society's rules to stay cocky, to go wild, to be real.