"I'm a witch," she said. "I influence the weather."

College student Rusty Stewart planned to spend an idyllic summer break in 1980s Athens, GA, living with his boyfriend, Hutch. But when Hutch ditches him for another guy, Rusty must navigate a broken heart through a maelstrom of outside expectations and embarrassing social spectacles.

Enter Charlotte, an enigmatic, outcast caricature of a wealthy Southern belle who communicates with ghosts and directs the forces of nature from within a fragile psychic shell.

"Charlotte wasn't the only person I'd ever met who...