Paul Monette was a well-regarded gay novelist who (after losing two long-term companions to AIDS) wrote Becoming A Man: Half a Life Story, a memoir which won the Nation Book Award. Ironically, Monette began to receive his greatest acclaim as a writer and produced his deepest and most personal works after he was diagnosed with AIDS. Monette bravely battled the disease's debilitating effects as he struggled to continue his work as a writer and an impassioned AIDS activist before succumbing to the disease in 1995. Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer's End is a documentary about his life and work that combines home movies and news footage with interviews with Monette, his friends, and his peers. Linda Hunt provides narration, while Jonathan Fried reads from Monette's works.