She's due for the attention. Polley's character is named Harper. Later we learn that Connie routinely calls all the women in his life Guinevere. Connie takes over the girl's life. He convinces her to avoid Harvard Law School and become his lover and pupil.
Harper learns something of the craft of photography.
Guinevere gives us reference to the affair between the elder photographer Steiglitz and the young Georgia O'Keeffe. The film is really a romance set against today's San Francisco vie boheme . The visuals are right, if not the dialogue. Especially groanworthy chat can be heard in the early scenes of a barroom literary debate. The mother turns up at Connie's studio to dress her daughter down about going to live with an artist.