After retiring from his career in construction and trying to cope with the death of his wife, Isaac York experiences an infatuation for a lifelong male friend and discovers his world fills with sunflowers and a risqué transition. Isaac moves to Lake Samoy in search of a new life, to abandon his past, and to start a fresh relationship with a famous and sexy man named Nebraska Close, whom he falls head over heals for.<br><br>Nebraska Close, a professional photographer who is drawn to summer nights and a younger man’s skin, finds pleasure for a second time in his life. Unconditionally he falls for Isaac and mixes together his lust, photography of sunflowers, and homosexual longing.<br><br>Isaac's son, Nicholas, lives at Lake Samoy and doesn't understand his father's lack of interest in his mother's fatal illness. With the help of Nebraska Close, Nicholas confronts his father’s sexuality, and Isaac learns to love his son again.

Nebraska Close

And later, while on the patio during a rainstorm, I studied Isaac’s lips on Nebraska’s chest. I heard him whisper to H. Maximiliani, “I’ve fallen for you,” or something like that. Isaac dragged a tongue over the photographer’s right nipple, the cords lining his neck, and eventually connected their mouths together. After pulling away, my father whispered, “Nicholas…he doesn’t understand what we have…He’ll never understand what we have.” He then mentioned how happy he was with Nebraska: cleansed, filled with rightfulness, so content. “Nicholas hates us…He’ll always hate us. There will never be a sense of healing.” And then: “I’m selfish about your skin, needy of it, the method of my desire. I needed you twenty years ago. Where were you? Where were you? Where were—”


Chapter 16