Intrigue

During summer vacation on Fire Island, three young people become very close. When an uncool girl tries to infiltrate the trio's newly-found relationship, they construct an elaborate plot that has violent results.

During summer vacation on Fire Island, three young people--a girl and two guys--become so close that they form a sort-of threesome. When an uncool girl tries to infiltrate the trio's newly found relationship, they construct an elaborate plot that has violent results.—Anonymous

Late teens Sandy, Peter, and Dan meet while their families vacation for the summer on Fire Island, New York. They instantly bond over the rescue of an injured seagull, and soon are doing everything together in solidarity with little respect for others, especially adults. They almost become indistinguishable as individuals when together, such as being in a gang. Things change when they meet another vacationing teen named Rhoda later in the summer. Rhoda is shy, seemingly insecure (which the three later learn for good reason), overly analytical and straight-laced, but she needs the acceptance of her peers. The individual personalities of the three friends start to emerge after that: Peter is the sensitive one, Dan the overly confident one who may not have reason to be, and Sandy the manipulative one, especially in using her sexuality to control the two males. But Rhoda, in asserting her own beliefs, may not have a chance when dealing with the three as a group.—Huggo

Four teenagers on Fire Island experience the pains and pleasures of adolescence when they experiment with alcohol, drugs, and sex along the coast near a parent's summer home, resulting in tragedy when Rhoda, a misfit who wants to join them, is raped by the other three. Sandy (Barbara Hershey) is the group's key leader and manipulator who lures her boyfriends (Richard Thomas, Bruce Davison) into her scheme by asking them to help her take a fish hook out of an injured seagull. The gull is nursed to health and they try to train it to fly on a string. The misfit (Catherine Burns) protests they are being cruel and seeks out their sympathy about the death of her mother. After it bites her, Sandy secretly kills the gull to vent her resentment toward the unattractive brace-toothed outsider who might steal her boyfriends away. Peter (Thomas) has fallen in love with the newcomer to add fuel to her jealousy. She recruits Anibal, a hispanic from a computer dating service, to be Rhoda's blind date just to humiliate her. He is attacked by rowdy gangsters and the foursome flee back to Fire Island where Rhoda is alone in the hot woods and is an easy target for Sandy, helped by Dan and Peter, to have her final revenge.