TO read the movie marquees, one might conclude that the U.S. public has an insatiable appetite for the realities of the Now Generation and its quest for relevance. Yet, as TIME suggests in its cover story this week, there may be a new trend gathering momentum. It is a return to romanticism, a yearning for years past, when life was simpler and values stronger. This yearning is expressed both in the film Love Story and in the personality of its star, Ali MacGraw. Senior Editor Peter Martin and Correspondent Mary Cronin first met her in Hollywood last June. They were immediately struck, as Martin says, "by her great enthusiasm for life. She takes you back to the time in college when all the good romantic things were within your grasp."

Later, during lengthy interviews with MacGraw and her husband in Manhattan, Cronin was further impressed, as was Researcher Michele Whitney, by Ali's essential simplicity and lack of glitter, the Teddy bears she adores, the wonderful junk that she collects--such things as silver-and-gold fans inscribed "Souvenir of the 1897 Exposition." To Film Critic Stefan Kanfer, who has been following Ali's career since she first appeared in Goodbye Columbus, her sudden leap to stardom is a classic example of "cinema inventing its own faces. When it needed the gritty reflection of urban reality, it found Arkin and Hoffman. Now, obviously, it is yearning for a sense of beauty in faces and stories."

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TIME'S discussion of the new romanticism is only one of a number of stories in this week's issue that discern a fascinating development, pose a surprising question or in some other way depart from the expected norm. Among them:

>> In San Francisco's North Beach, the Soulful Spiders and Iceberg Slims and other hard and sweet macks have developed a language of their own (see BEHAVIOR).

>> In Chicago, a rookie "policeman" is fast becoming a civic hero, even though he spends much of his time bashing heads and bodies (see SPORT).

>> At Fort Bragg, N.C., the harrowing ordeal of an Army doctor has led him to wonder whether an American is indeed always innocent until proven guilty (see THE LAW).

>> In Jersey City, the passing of the Democratic boss system evokes a native daughter's memories of politicians, bribes and a tomcat named Hague (see THE NATION).

>> In London, the British Health Education Council is mounting a sex education campaign on the proposition that Casanova never got a girl in trouble (see THE WORLD).

>> In Lima, Ohio, a 7-year-old boy appears to be recovering from one of the deadliest diseases of all (see MEDICINE).

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