1. EXTERIOR—DAY—LEBRUN’S HOTEL AND COTTAGES—GRAND ISLE, LOUISIANA, A SUNDAY IN JULY 1890
It is morning in high summer on the Gulf Coast. Across a field of waving yellow chamomile we see a sprawling white wooden building, a nineteenth-century resort hotel in the neo-Gothic style, two single-story wings extending from a three-story center. The building has a mansard roof topped with a decorative cupola. A high, wide porch stretches from wing tip to wing tip.
The building itself is in dim focus, seen through a prism of time. The field in the foreground is in sharp focus, bright, timeless summer.
We hear the buzz of summer insects, faraway music, a distant indistinct hum of voices in unison.
