- A teenaged boy arrives in Hollywood to become a movie star, but winds up becoming a male prostitute and gets involved with a gay football star.
- Dawn stops a police car in the night. Alexander looks almost half-dead with an overdose.
Alexander Duncan (Leigh McCloskey) realises that he can't stay with his parents at his Oklahoma farm. He would like to be an artist, but his conservative father, Eddie Duncan (Lonnie Chapman) will not ever pay for a school as they are poor and they have six more children. Alexander ends up going to LA, while Dawn Wetherby (Eve Plumb) stays at a boarding school.
Just arrived to LA and a guy speaks to him while he is on a public phone booth and offers him to stay with him at his flat. This guy will be rude to him because he returned to the flat beforetime. The problem is that Alex is underage. This guy tells him to go and visit a lady who is lonely and get 50 dollars from her. He gets the money even though this lady was not expecting him.
Alex will finally get a job at a tailor shop (Mr Anderson (Fred Sadoff)), but he has an accident, breaks an arm and loses his job. The police have also been there, so the boss is terrified of the scandal. They won't have anything else to do with him. He is about to get a job at a butcher's (Wayne Heffley), but his former troubles and him being underage put the prospective employee at odds and he retracts the offer, saying that the position has already been filled.
Alex solicits but it is a trap from the police. However, a psychologist will sign for him thinking he is gay and offers some group support. The mother, Clara Duncan (Diana Douglas) is nice to Alex when he calls home, but the father is distant and couldn't care less. There is a group meeting of young gay men led by Ray Church (Earl Holliaman), the psychologist, but Alex doesn't feel ready to admit that he is gay. These young people (Lincoln Kilpatrick Jr, Damu King, Jonathan R. Banks and Larry Rosenberg) are angry and have had very conflictive lives.
Dawn has been expelled from school. The day of her birthday Alex calls and pretends that he was not evicted by her landlady, a woman still obsessed with the promises that some guy had made to her of making her a movie star. Dawn tells Alex to come back home to her, but Alex can't. Dawn holds onto a teddy bear and cries silently. She has told Alex that she is enjoying a birthday party, but she is feeling miserable on her own.
That night, Alex sleeps under a toboggan at a children's park. He goes to an art gallery, where Charles "Chuck" Selby (Alan Feinstein), nicknamed Snake, is a famous rugby player who is harassed by two moronic giggling ladies in search of an autograph. Charles convinces him of doing some surf, which he had never practiced before, and on their way to the beach he lets Alex drive his too expensive car. Chuck has a mansion right on the beach's coastline. Chuck takes a photo of Alex in a swimsuit throwing a toy disc. All this is a more than welcome distraction for Alex and his problems.
Chuck doesn't push sex onto Alex although he is letting him sleep on his sofa. Charles hasn't told his father that he is gay. Alex does exercise with Charles and keeps him company. Alex phones Dawn - he has sent a lot of money to her. When Charles inquires, he just says that it was an acquaintance at Vegas. Charles seems to think that Alex is really trying to become an artist, although he seems to have forgotten everything about his first ambition in life. As it is Charles' birthday, he buys a present for him. Charles and Alex go to a gay club to listen to Frances Faye (Herself).
Chuck and Alex enjoy a dinner with a couple of friends, a man and a woman. When Alex goes to the loo, Chuck speaks to the man. At the beginning, the man says that Alex looks like a good kid, but then he tells Charles to be careful. Charles is worried that Alex is just "buying time with him", that is, only staying with him until he finds something better. The friend tells Alex that Charles a lot to lose for showing up at a club like that and that Charles might get hurt.
Charles calls for Alex, who is speaking to Ray Church. He doesn't want to tell him where he is living. Alex tells him to leave him alone, as he is off the streets now. Ray and Charles knew each other. Ray reminds Alex that Ray's ass is also on the line, so that he should show up at court. Ray tells Alex not tot get lost, because next time he is not going to look for him. Alex is surprised that Ray and Charles knew each other.
The Judge, White (Alice Hirson) doesn't look completely careless. Alex is there at 8.30 and White stills remembers Alex's case from before. In fact, he corrects the counsel, Ray Church, who says that Alex is from Texas, stating that Alex is from East Oklahoma. White lets Alex go so that he won't have a criminal record, but tells him to sort out his life and that he doesn't want to see him again. Ray gives Alex some advice though: he knows that his job is not a real job, and tells him to start looking for a job for the time when Chuck gets tired of him. In fact, when Alex comes back to Chuck's mansion on the beach he is taking photographs of another good-looking guy with a surf board.
Chuck tells Alex to enjoy the small party, but Alex is not on the mood. Jack (Jack Rader) tells Alex that he should be making his own decisions and not making Chuck unhappy. Jack criticizes Alex for being moody. Chuck is the way he is, and he is not going to change.
Ray advises Alex to start thinking about his own life. Meanwhile, Alex takes Ray to the Gay Community Centre in Chuck's expensive car. On his way back to Chuck's home, he buys some drugs.
Jack is rejecting an offer. In the middle of the party, the police arrive to inquire about a young kid driving Chuck's car. The two police officers recognise immediately Chuck as Charles Selby, the famous football player. They enter the house. Alex tries to throw the drugs to the raging fireplace, but it is too late. The two police officers are taking everybody to the police station to see how to solve the problem.
Dawn is showing everybody a photograph of Alex, as he is looking for him.
The counsel is arguing that the police did an illegal search and entry. Alex is again in front of White. Ray is speaking on his behalf, asking for all charges to be dropped. The counsel, Mr Adams, (John Devil) is arguing that Alex didn't know what the packet contained, but White says that the search was legal and that the charges should remain against Alex.
White asks Ray what will happen if she lets Alex go. Ray admits that he will be back in about a week as he will have found some other kind of trouble. He argues that Alex is a good kid without direction in life. Church admits that in his case, he wouldn't be able to keep out of trouble either. White sends Alex for a 90-day probation period with the youth services. The counsel recommends Alex to sit down and shut up, but he is keen to speak it out. Alex feels pushed around, everybody telling him what to do. Everybody tries to help but nobody asks him what he wants to do. Alex admits that he has screwed up.
White asks Alex what he really wants. Alex wants to leave the city, marry his girl back home. White asks him what next, and Alex says that he doesn't know.
White looks at him in the eye and tells him to leave the city and never come back. She doesn't like being made a fool of, and this is going to be Alex's last opportunity. She dismisses the case and lets him go.
Alex catches a coach to Houston. He wants to meet Dawn. However, he sees her thumbing a lift and screams for the driver to stop the coach and let him out. He runs out to her. Dawn tells her that somebody was making her unhappy at home, so she tried to find him.
They frenchkiss in the middle of the street and Alex says that they are going to be together and that they are moving up and out of the city.
While they are walking by, they notice a young kid arriving to LA just with a small suitcase, just like Alex a short time before. Both stare at this young man who we only see on the back as he is walking away with a confident swag.
Alex and Dawn walk together.
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By what name was Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn (1977) officially released in Canada in English?
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