The Long, Hot Summer 1958 Sixty one year old widower Will Varner Orson Welles, in ill health, owns many businesses and property in Frenchmans Bend, Mississippi, including a plantation To him, his children are a disappointment, who he sees as not being able to carry on the Varner name in the style to which he has built around it Son Jody Anthony Francoisa has no ambition and does not work, spending much of his time fooling around with his seductive wife, Eula Lee Remick He finds 23 year old daughter Clara Joanne Woodward clever, but he feels she also wastes her time on more contemplative pursuits While most of her contemporaries are married, Clara has been dating Alan Stewart Richard Anderson, a genteel mamas boy, for six years Will would not mind Alan so much if he too thought Alan had a bit of a forceful man in him, which he could demonstrate by actually asking Clara to marry him Conversely, Jody laments that nothing he does is ever good enough for his father, while Clara plain does not like the way he treats them Into their lives comes Ben Quick Paul Newman, who Jody hired while Will was hospitalized, to do some sharecropping on currently vacant land Despite Will believing the unsubstantiated stories that Ben burned down someones barn as an act of vengeance, Will becomes to view Ben as the son he never had, as he is much the same mold As such, Will does whatever he can to get Ben to be part of the family to carry on the Varner name the way Will wants it be, which means marrying Clara Through the process, Clara may come to a realization about what she really wants in life, while Jody does whatever he can to retain his position in the family