A Scent of Lilac
Mabel Flanigan is certain of three things: her dreams are bigger than Wheatonville, Illinois, she must escape Pleasant Meadows Mental Hospital before her Electroconvulsive (ECT) therapy, and she is in love with Bonnie Williams.
When Bonnie comes to Wheatonville, IL in the early 1970’s, Mabel realizes there is more to life than the celestial bodies she has been dreaming of studying. Bonnie is torn between the love she feels for Mabel and living up to her family’s expectations of her getting married and starting a family.
With an acceptance letter to University of California-Berkeley, Mabel finally sees an opportunity to escape her abusive father and make a life with Bonnie. But when Bonnie turns down Mabel’s request to join her in California, the ensuing argument ends in a life altering accident.
Mabel’s father has her committed to a mental institution after regaining consciousness to cure her of her homosexual tendencies. Bonnie struggles to learn to walk again, but falls into a deep depression as it becomes clear she lost more than Mabel in the accident.
Mabel and Bonnie fight their way back to each other determined to give their relationship one more chance, despite living in a world that brands their love an impossibility.
A Scent of Lilac
