Paul is the gravitational pull on his college friends who have somehow stayed in his orbit for nearly a decade, meeting every summer for a weekend at his mother's house in upstate New York. This year, Paul makes a desperate attempt to keep everyone together. His friends don't cooperate. And everything reminds them of how far they have, in fact, not come. ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES starts as a parable of human evolution and develops as a lighthearted drama. Paul has prepared menus and conversation topics circling the question of how a species evolves. Sex is the catalyst, but sex is only the beginning. Paul's wife, Julia, is ambivalent about being pregnant and has not yet told him about the pregnancy. When she finally does, Paul seems completely out of touch with her emotions, jeopardizing the future of their relationship. Stan has recently survived testicular cancer, but he's far from feeling alive. Kate, Stan's ex-girlfriend, abandoned him during his illness. Now Kate discovers that her ...