Their lives continue to intersect in unexpected ways. Michael falls in love with a handsome doctor named Jon Fielding, Anna and Edgar become closer, and DeDe tries to find an identity for herself outside of her marriage. Mary Ann adjusts to a new life, while Mona loses her job and struggles to pay the bills. The characters all face different challenges. They become close with liberal lawyer Brian Hawkins, as well as the offbeat, mysterious Norman Neal Williams, who lives in an unconventional roof apartment. Meanwhile, Mona’s gay best friend, Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, moves in with her and becomes friends with Mary Ann.

Mary Ann is introduced to Edgar’s scheming, amoral son-in-law, Beauchamp Day, and begins an affair with him, unaware that he’s cheating on his wife, DeDe Halcyon Day, who is Edgar’s daughter. After a stressful day at the office, Edgar happens to meet Anna at a park, and the two begin an affair. The company is run by Edgar Halcyon, a powerful businessman dying of kidney disease. Mary Ann starts working at Mona’s firm, Halcyon Communications. Mary Ann quickly befriends her new neighbors, including nervous advertising executive Mona Ramsey. She finds temporary housing with her former high school friend Connie Bradshaw, a free spirit involved in the era’s sexual revolution, before moving into her own place at 28 Barbary Lane, an apartment building run by eccentric, kind, and open-minded Anna Madrigal. The novel begins as naïve, Midwestern secretary Mary Ann decides to transform her vacation in San Francisco to a permanent move and thereby revamp her boring life.

Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin