sag harbor (n.y.)

During the summer she is sixteen, overweight Rita Formica falls in love with the most beautiful young man she's ever seen and is determined to win him at all costs.

Benji Cooper, the son of a doctor and a lawyer, is one of very few African-American students at an elite Manhattan prep school in 1985, which is why he so looks forward to summer when he and his brother Reggie, left alone for most of the week while their parents work, can relax within the comfortable confines of the community of professional African-Americans that spend the warm months at Sag Harbor.

Benji, one of the only black kids at an elite prep school in Manhattan, tries desperately to fit in, but every summer, he and his brother, Reggie, escape to the East End of Sag Harbor, where a small community of African American professionals has built a world of is own.