Claudia

Married for one year, Claudia and David Naughton have moved onto a farm they bought just outside of Stillbrook, Connecticut, wanting to eke out a life as farmers, although David, an architect by trade, still regularly commutes into the city for work. What David loves about rather young Claudia is her innocent, unassuming nature--not caring what she looks like to the outside world. He just wishes that she would grow up and not be so scatterbrained or do things like surreptitiously listen in on the telephone party line no man in his right mind who would want her in the way she presents herself. What David wishes about her is that she would grow up, such as not being so scatterbrained, not doing immature things like surreptitiously listening on the telephone party line, and--most importantly--David loves Claudia's mother, Mrs. Brown, and loves to have her come from New York to visit them, but why can't Claudia cut herself loose from her mother's apron strings? In some ways Claudia does want to be more grown-up, and she might test out those characteristics of herself with opportunities presented to her by Russian opera singer Madame Daruschka, a visitor to the farm with David's stuck-up sister-in-law Julia, who has been unhappily married to David's brother Hartley for 10 years, and by British playwright Jerry Seymoure, who has rented a nearby cottage so that he can complete his latest play. Claudia will find that these opportunities are mere trifles compared to the real-life challenges she must face which will make her truly need to grow up.