Worlds collide at an awkward dinner party in 1959 New England. Tables turn when a progressive biracial couple attends dinner at the imposing home of an unexceptional artist and questionable psychiatrist. By daybreak, they find themselves pawns in a cynical game that exposes the cracks in their facades.
A socially awkward but highly enterprising teenager decides to acquire a "mail order best friend"; a sophisticated exchange student from France. Instead, he ends up importing his personal nightmare, a cologne-soaked, chain-smoking, sex-obsessed youth who quickly becomes the hero of his new community.