John O'Bryan

Alas Sweet Lethe begins in the tumultuous years of the mid-1800's and follows the lives of a rural Kentucky family living along the Ohio River. Two young boys, Adam, son of a land owner, and Reuben, son of a trapper, grow up in this era. Nearly brothers when young, they become competitors for the same woman as they grow older. Their friendship turns into acrimony and revenge on the evening of Adam's wedding to Helen. While on a river boat bound for St. Louis, the two men fight until they break a railing. Helen and Reuben both fall overboard. She drowns, but Reuben recovers and eventually makes his way to St. Louis. Forty years after his departure, Reuben returns to Kentucky. When Adam learns he is back in town, he executes a plan to drown him in the old chapel where the wedding had taken place.