Synopsis

Villagers in a picturesque Vermont town hope an unusual bequest will give them the financial means to fight off a developer who plans to build a shopping mall that will destroy the character of their town. A novelist who once lived there has died leaving the village an unpublished work entitled Over the Checkboard which promises to be his best novel since his only successful work won a Pulitzer thirty five years ago. Controversy erupts when the book turns out to be a steamy look at a small town not unlike theirs with characters startlingly similar to their neighbors, friends and selves.