Liz Hamlin

The Women in No Man's Land Liz Hamlin

When four women check into The Last Resort, a luxurious cabin nestled among rolling Ohio Valley hills, they are complete strangers to each other and to Cassandra, the owner of a secluded retreat for women only. They come from diverse geographic, cultural, and financial backgrounds; they differ in appearance, attitude, and social status. They have only three common denominators - gender, widowhood, and personal secrets which motivate them to temporarily black-ball men from their lives. A substantial ABSOLUTELY NO MEN PERMITTED ON PREMISES sign securely attached to the gate leading into Wit's End Road is welcome assurance to the women guests that the problems which prompted them to take time out from the male sex would not be worsened by a man's presence. The only exception to the edict abolishing males is Shep Stephens who temporarily lives with his young son in a cabin at the far end of Wit's End Road. Shep is hired by Cassandra to be her caretaker while he waits for an opening for his handicapped seven-year old to attend a school for the deaf in Columbus. Cassandra's quarantine against males includes the boy who ignores the sign on the gate repeatedly trespasses on her property to fish in the nearby Muskingum River. Cassandra's angry confrontation with Shep about his son's repeated trespassing makes her late in picking up her first guest who arrives by Greyhound. The second guest flies in on Peidmont, the third comes by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, and the last drives herself. Their varying modes of travel are indicative of the differences among the four women who will share one cabin for thirty days. During their first week of togetherness, the women begin to interact. Animosities and affections develop and continue to become stronger during the second week. Early in the third week, Shep is summoned to take his son to be tested at the school for the deaf. The women will be on their own. While he is gone, Cassandra and her four guests are trapped i