Q:Build a movie plot around this: who is mysterious secretary who comes to work at the university? Alma
A:
This article may need to be rewritten entirely to comply with Wikipedia's quality standards. You can help. The discussion page may contain suggestions. (June 2016)The plot is taken from the novel of the same name by Straub, but greatly changes and simplifies it.In a small New England town during a frigid winter season, four elderly friends form what they call the Chowder Society, an informal mens club where they regale each other with scary stories. Membership in the club, in fact, requires that one present such a story. The four friends are: Ricky Hawthorne, a business owner; Sears James, a lawyer; Dr. John Jaffrey; and Edward Charles Wanderley, the town's mayor.When Edward's son, David (Craig Wasson), living in New York City, falls from a window after the girl he's sleeping with turns suddenly into a decomposing, living corpse, Edward grieves. His other son, Don, a college professor who has fallen on hard times, comes home at Edward's request but doesn't receive a warm welcome, since Edward always preferred the other, more ambitious twin son.But now the four elderly gentlemen are unsettled and have nightmares. Clearly, something is bothering them. Edward becomes so distraught that he wanders across a bridge in the snow. When he sees the same female apparition that caused his son to fall to his death, Edward, too, falls to his death from the bridge. Although his death is ruled a suicide, his son Don and Edward's three remaining elderly friends doubt it. Don approaches the remaining three friends, requests membership in their group and offers up a bizarre "ghost" story of his own.Don's flashback:A few years earlier, Don, then a promising junior professor living in Florida, meets Alma, a beautiful if mysterious secretary who had come to work for the university. They immediately become involved in a torrid sexual affair that causes him to miss work and earn the scorn of the dean who previously championed him. But Don finds a strange coldness about Alma, and he breaks things off with her. Later, he hears...