Close to the Bone — Jake Lamar

As the O.J. Simpson murder case plays out in the media, Hal Hardaway, a young black executive, is struggling to get along with his white girlfriend, Corky Winterset, who once briefly dated Hal's former college roommate, Walker DuPree. DuPree is of mixed racial heritage, a fact that torments him. Hal introduces the racially confused Walker to a good friend, Sadie Broom; just as Sadie believes she is about to march to the altar with Walker, he becomes suddenly wealthy, a result of his long-lost, white father's inheritance. Walker takes off for Amsterdam to smoke pot and find himself as an artist. There he meets, Eva, a Scandinavian coffee-shop waitress with whom he falls in love; she, however, is interested in Jean-Luc, a Frenchman. Ensuing events bring some couples together and keep others apart. Though it begins with the probing question asked by self-help leader Dr. Emmett Mercy, "What is a black man?"