Plot
Arriving in a new city, writer Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes) secures a job at Pique magazine and lodgings in a guest house belonging to Cliff and Liv Forrester (Kurtwood Smith and Gwynyth Walsh). The handsome Nick soon makes the acquaintance of the Forrester's 14-year-old daughter Adrian (originally Darian) (Alicia Silverstone), a precocious gifted girl who has borderline personality disorder and develops an intense attraction to him. She secretly helps Nick by sneaking into his room and rewriting one of his Pique stories, which subsequently wins a rave from his editor/boss Michael (Matthew Walker). At a party thrown by the Forresters, Nick agrees to accompany the lonely girl on a nighttime drive to a romantic spot, where she kisses him. This intensifies Adrian's crush on Nick, but he quickly wises up and attempts to put her off, having begun a budding romance with co-worker Amy (Jennifer Rubin). Adrian continues to boldly pursue him, even going so far as to undress in his view. Nick, however, continues to rebuff her advances, and Adrian's actions become destructive—she defaces a car he's restored and erases his computer discs—yet he's unable to convince Cliff and Liv of what's going on. Cheyenne (Amber Benson), a friend of Adrian who tries to warn Nick about her, meets with an "accident" at the riding school they attend together. Then, after Adrian spies on Amy in bed with Nick, the girl locks Amy in her darkroom and empties a wasps' nest into the vents. Amy survives, and Nick, now convinced that Adrian is big trouble, attempts to find new lodgings. However, Adrian manages to sabotage his efforts. She then accuses him of sexually assaulting her with "evidence" obtained from a used condom from Nick's trash, leading to his arrest. After Michael bails him out (and fires him), Nick is met once again by Cheyenne. She informs Nick that she knows he did not do anything to Adrian, and that Adrian had behaved like this before to a previous crush, a camp counselor named Rick who "accidentally" died by eating something poisonous. Cheyenne also informs Nick of a diary Adrian kept that can acquit him. When Cheyenne leaves, Nick goes looking for her when he hears strange noises from the Forresters' house. He discovers Cheyenne tied up in the attic and is confronted by Adrian and then Cliff, who attacks him. Adrian, still infatuated, attacks her father, leaving Nick free to subdue her with one punch. Acquitted, Nick goes to live with Amy while Adrian, confined to a psychiatric ward, wishes to express her remorse for what she has done to Nick. Her doctor comments that she is making good progress, but seems to be yet unaware she is developing a crush on him.
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Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“After I discovered the real life of mothers bore little resemblance to the plot outlined in most of the books and articles I’d read, I started relying on the expert advice of other mothers—especially those with sons a few years older than mine. This great body of knowledge is essentially an oral history, because anyone engaged in motherhood on a daily basis has no time to write an advice book about it.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)