Eastern Standard.

THE STORY: Four Manhattan yuppies strike up a friendship in a chic uptown restaurant after a bag lady in-volves them in an altercation. A month later, the four self-involved Manhattanites (three men and one woman), having fallen instantly in love with one another, converge at a seaside resi-dence, hoping to alleviate their shaped sense of alienation and purposelessness with a misguided attempt at rehabilitating May, the bag lady who brought them all together. In their pretense at public mindedness, they all seek either an escape from their own problems or redemption from the lives they used to live. How do you tell the man who's eagerly pursuing you, and whom you really love, that you have the AIDS virus? How does your sister react to the news of your illness when she's trying to start a new relationship of her own? How does an immensely successful architect make amends to society for years of blotting our cities' skylines with his postmodern monstrosities? And can all these questions really be answered by taking May off her medication and teaching her about the finer things in life, like preparing place settings for a dinner party? Ultimately not, and in the end, sobered but still game, the two couples, one heterosexual, one homosexual, have remained together to drink a toast to the accidental happiness that, with luck, may still come their way.Richard Greenberg is the author of 'Eastern Standard.' with ISBN 9780822203476 and ISBN 0822203472.