A Smack of Jellyfish

ALASKA 1973 In the days when women's lib was in its infancy and Alaska was still a man's world, recent college graduate Maddie Maguire is expected to return to her comfortable life in California, get a job, and get married. Instead, Maddie bolts to Alaska, woefully ill-prepared for the rough-and-tumble world of commercial fishing she finds on the edge of a vast and watery wilderness. Her naivety and sense of adventure land her in one precarious situation after another, whether jumping unprepared onto fishing boats or into the arms of unscrupulous lovers. Caught in the cross-fire of unsavory skippers, demanding lovers, and friends who may or may not have her best interests at heart, Maddie vacillates between returning home or forging a new life in the North. But before she can decide, she has to survive. Funny, touching, and illuminating, A Smack of Jellyfish portrays a young woman's coming of age in a state as beautiful as it is dangerous in a decade defined by free love at home and an unpopular war abroad.