Three in the Attic

Paxton Quigley, a renowned womanizer, meets Fulton College undergrad Tobey Clinton at the Zeta Chi fraternity party and they begin dating. Their relationship marks the start of a turbulent pattern of romance and manipulation. This initial attraction sets the tone for the conflicts to come.

The couple spends the summer together by the beach in Provincetown, growing closer as they escape campus life. Tobey's hopes for a future with Paxton intensify during these idyllic days. The summer also foreshadows the tensions to follow when real life intrudes.

Tobey's parents discover Paxton and Tobey living together at Tobey's family home in Provincetown. After a heated confrontation, they separate for the last two weeks of the summer break. Tobey remains deeply in love and hopeful about reuniting at school.

Back at Willard College, Tobey is ecstatic to be with Paxton again. Paxton's behavior remains unchecked as their relationship resumes amid campus life. The stage is set for further complications to surface.

On a motorcycle ride, Paxton meets Eulice, a Fulton student who asks to paint him naked. She finishes the painting but then promises to pose nude for him as compensation. The encounter drifts from flirtation to a motel rendezvous, foreshadowingPaxton's ongoing pattern of conquest.

Paxton and Eulice share a motel rendezvous, and he boasts afterward about his lack of remorse to his fraternity brothers. The brag highlights his growing sense of invulnerability and his exploitation of others. The behavior signals a deeper moral decline.

During a trip to a cabin, Tobey asks Paxton to move out of the fraternity house and into an apartment with her. Paxton overreacts, triggering a bitter fight, but they eventually reconcile as they discuss their future together. The episode tests their commitment.

Paxton answers a call from Eulice and meets Jan in the woods. After sharing magic brownies and body paint, Paxton makes a move and Jan retreats, only to betray him with a calculated intimacy. The encounter underscores Paxton's manipulative pattern.

Back at the Zeta Chi house, Paxton's brothers accompany him in devising an elaborate plan to date Eulice, Jan, and Tobey all at once. They scheme so each woman believes she is Paxton's exclusive partner. The plan reveals the extent of Paxton's deceitful aims.

While attending a movie with Tobey, Paxton is almost discovered by Eulice and Jan, who spot him from the front of the theater. He barely escapes detection, heightening the tension of his double life. The close call emphasizes how precarious his deceit is.

Paxton returns to a party at the Zeta Chi house and witnesses further misconduct by the brothers. Meanwhile, Tobey, Eulice, and Jan uncover his infidelity and trap him in Tobey's attic, planning to wear him down as punishment. He resists but is effectively immobilized.

Dean Nazarin connects the missing-person report with Paxton's whereabouts. She concludes that Paxton is being held in the attic and warns Tobey that she will overlook the punishment, effectively allowing the situation to continue without formal punishment.

Paxton endures two weeks of malnutrition and relentless advances as a form of punishment. Tobey consents to release him, but he stumbles into a female dorm and is knocked unconscious, requiring an ambulance. The episode marks a turning point in the power dynamics.

With Dean Nazarin's intervention, the three women avoid formal punishment. Paxton, aided by Eulice, chases Tobey down before she leaves town on a bus, making a desperate plea for reconciliation. The escape scene catalyzes the final decision to mend the relationship.

Paxton and Tobey reconcile after the chaotic sequence of events. The couple attempts to move forward with a more complicated understanding of respect and fidelity, aided by Eulice's involvement in the broader love triangle. The film closes on a note of fragile hopeful renewal.