The sight of the new Buick almost makes Heyward Jennings physically ill At sixty years old the prominent Atlanta banker can no longer oblige himself to drive another of the sensible gray Buicks that First Mercantile Security Bank provides its executives as company cars At the twilight of his careerand the brink of old ageHeyward realizes his life much like the dull gray cars is guarded and boring On impulse Heyward retires and moves with his wife Elizabeth to their beach house on the Atlantic coast There he begins to experience the kind of thrills hes always avoided Finished playing by the rules he creates a new life where Buicks and prudence are only a distant memory and excitement and adventure occasionally take place on the wrong side of the law With the encouragement of a wellendowed lesbian and his redneck cousins Heyward in the face of a tragedy surrounding his best friend steps so far out of his careful and cautious ways that he crosses a lineand soon realizes theres no way back
