The Summer They Came

There was a time when the seaside town of Long Spit was known only to a few wealthy families and a straggle of New England beachgoers. But when gay developers from Man-hattan, searching for a new place for summer shares and tea dances, get a look at its gently curving beaches, they hatch an ingenious plan to transform the sleepy Rhode Island hideaway into the next gay hotspot. If only someone would tell the townsfolk.

As a contingent of gym-buffed and cell-phone-toting vacationers descends o...