Pat Garner

An ex-con returns to his Florida hometown after three years and becomes involved with the wife of his best friend, the local sheriff.

Third-generation Florida beekeeper Ulee Jackson may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for his two grandchildren and keeps his emotions at bay. But when a long-buried secret threatens Ulee's business and family, he is forced to break through his emotional walls and confront the terror of his wounded spirit.

This fictionalized story, based on the family life of writer James Jones, is an emotional slice-of-life story. Jones is portrayed here as Bill Willis, a former war hero turned author who combats alcoholism and is starting to experience health problems. Living in France with his wife, daughter, and an adopted son, the family travels an unconventional road which casts them as outsiders to others. Preaching a sexual freedom, his daughter's sexual discovery begins at an early age and betrays her when the family moves to Hanover in America. Her overt sexuality clashes with the values of her teenage American peers and gives her a problematic reputation. Meanwhile, her brooding brother copes with his own interior pain regarding his past, only comfortable communicating within the domestic space.

After fighting for their country in the Army, friends Chris and Johnny return to South London only to find their home town has changed beyond recognition. With no jobs the two join local gangs, work their way to the top and become feared hooligan bosses. The only thing that can top war, and threaten friendships, is money and power, but who will stand their ground and come out on top in the violent and bloody battle between North and South?

Mattie, a widow living in the backwoods of Florida during Prohibition, meets Trax, a charming man much younger that herself. Trax is a womanizing, lying bootlegger who needs money and he sets his sights on Mattie who can support him. After energetically courting her, Mattie marries Trax, who before long brings home a young woman to be their housekeeper, but it is obvious that she is to be his mistress. When Trax leaves on business, the two women each contemplate how they are being exploited and Mattie comes up with a plan of her own.