One Night Only is appropriately titled: It’s the only big-studio romantic comedy hitting theaters this summer.

As if conceding to the big-marketing spirit of the season, it’s a rom-com with a big hook: It’s set in a near-future United States where pre-marital sex has been outlawed, but single people have a 12-hour reprieve once a year. There’s no indication in the movie about whether the in-story lawmakers were inspired by the thriller series The Purge, or if they’re meant to have arrived at this concept independently. But for viewers, that’s essentially it: The Purge, but for casual sex, which is illegal.

It may be the most that-just-raises-further-questions premise of all time. In fact, the film’s writer-director Will Gluck (who also made Friends with Benefits and Anyone but You) even agreed to answer (or at least to answer) a series of questions about the details of this world for Polygon. These questions dig further into the background of this sex law (not the fun, Beck kind), but more casual moviegoers may have simpler questions about One Night Only.

Here, then, as a service to Decider readers, is the One Night Only FAQ, from someone who has seen the movie, but isn’t intent on spoiling it for you. The movie answers many of these questions, in its way, but as Gluck essentially points out, this is a romantic comedy, not a sci-fi movie exploring a dystopian landscape. If you’re just curious about the basics that aren’t that basic, or about the quality of the movie that inspired these basics, we’re here to help.

Is the New Monica Barbaro Movie One Night Only Formally Connected to The Purge?

No. Despite sharing Universal Studios as a parent studio, this is not an official spinoff. The Purge film series remains in stasis after five entries, though a sixth is supposedly in the writing stages.

One Night Only is more like The Binge or Meet the Blacks: a comic riff on ideas made familiar by the series.

What Kind of Sex is Illegal in One Night Only?

“Premarital” is the far more important distinction than any particular acts. Most characters in this (mostly heteronormative, though not hetero-exclusive) movie refer to sex as meaning penetrative intercourse, but the fact that no one is talking about other forms of sexual contact as a workaround is an early sign that the ban is fairly encompassing. Later, the sight gag of a public-info safety sign at a police station (visible in the publicity still below) confirms that any sex acts performed with more than one unmarried person are illegal (and that, based on a quick glimpse, masturbation is OK).

So This Sex Ban Isn’t Exclusively a Heterosexual Thing?

It’s not, but that’s one point of genuine confusion. The movie vaguely implies this all affects heterosexuals somewhat more than homosexuals, but refuses to explain exactly why this would be, given that the restrictions seem to encompass any sexual acts (forms of which, after all, could be performed in any number of configurations). The broader point, however, is that non-hetero folks are more accustomed to having their sex lives litigated and therefore may be perhaps better-equipped to deal with a sex purge in terms of mental health.

How is This All Enforced?

Everyone has biometric implants on their wrists, measuring the physical outputs of arousal and, presumably, contact — because if two people registered as unmarried (displayed as such by the color of their biometric stamps: green for married, red for single) are showing these symptoms in close physical proximity, the police are alerted.

How Close A Proximity?

The movie never says. We’re left to assume that these biometric implants, while simple enough for everyone to have them, are precise enough to tell the difference between your roommate watching porn in the next room and two consenting adults actually hooking up. Can two people masturbate in the same room together? Unclear!

How Do the Characters in the Movie One Night Only Feel About All This Sex Purge Business?

It’s mentioned that there was little public support for this bill, but the U.S. Congress rammed it through anyway as a pro-marriage measure that has succeeded in lowering STD rates and teen pregnancy (though both of those are down in our reality, too). Though no political parties are named and no one in this generally light and sweet movie dares utter the word “abortion,” it’s clearly intended as analogous to recent attacks on reproductive rights, mixed with a bit of COVID-era restriction anti-nostalgia. Most people we meet seem to consider it fascist overreach, which is a relief; if the movie had simply offered this as a cutesy alternate reality enforcing religious values, it might have been difficult to take. There are protests and frequently expressed hopes that the law will be repealed, but most people seem to be getting on with their lives as best they can. That’s the impression we get from Owen (Callum Turner) and Allie (Monica Barbaro), who don’t seem to be in favor of the law, but seem to regard it more as an impediment toward genuine romantic relationships they’re seeking, rather than a form of genuine oppression. (That, or they’ve just subsumed their resistance into a low hum of discontent. Join the club.) (Also, they’re white and seemingly well-off. They’re accustomed to ignoring oppression.)

If Owen and Allie Are Romantics at Heart, But Also Not Fans of the Law, Why Are They Even Bothering with the Sex Purge?

The twelve-hour period of legal premarital sex is portrayed, rather cleverly, as one of those semi-obligatory holidays of romantic abandon (and, not lost on a pop-culture junkie like Gluck, bad rom-coms) like Valentine’s Day or New Year’s Eve. Plenty of people, even single people, clearly opt out. But sometimes fate intervenes: Owen is introduced as part of a couple, and his girlfriend (Maya Hawke) thinks maybe it would be more prudent to use this opportunity to have sex with someone else, rather than a person she might well commit to legal sex with in the near future (and in fact, unbeknownst to her, Owen is hoping to propose). Faced with this setback, Owen is cast out into the night, looking for a last-minute hookup, and without the benefit of their shared apartment. He also doesn’t have any condoms, which are required.

Wait, what?! Unprotected Sex Is Also Illegal, Even During the 12-hour Window?

Yes. Whether this is part of the winking “compromise” that the 12-hour purge period is supposed to represent or the filmmakers don’t want to admit that any lawmakers who ban premarital sex would likely also ban birth control methods, and regardless of what an extra layer of difficulty the enforcement of safe sex would introduce, penetrative sex must involve condoms. This is blatantly used to introduce farcical complications.

OK, Back to Our Heroes. Why is Allie Bothering With All This?

Allie’s intentions are less clear. She just barely admits to potentially enjoying some casual sex. She’s really looking for that connection, which makes her attempt at principled participation a little confusing. Wouldn’t it make more sense to ramp up your earnest search in the weeks leading up to this momentous date than try to find a night-of connection? Plenty of people hope to get laid around Valentine’s Day, but not that many kick off their search the morning of. Then again, maybe she’s been trying and coming up short. The movie purposely doesn’t show us much outside of that central 12-hour frame. Moreover, in One Night Only, the idea of a premarital-sex-purge is used as a stand-in for any situation that exerts high pressure on single people, whether it’s finding a date to a wedding, finding someone to kiss on New Year’s Eve, or the desire to Netflix and chill.

So Is This Just a Bunch of Rom-com Nonsense Dressed Up with Feints Toward Sexual Gimmickry That the Movie Wants to Hint at But Not Really Depict?

Sort of. Of course, of course, Allie and Owen will cross paths not expecting anything sexual from each other, which given the context turns a standard rom-com trope from willfully stupid to a kind of low-key magic trick. But through a series of misadventures, they are afforded more time to banter, flirt, learn, etc. In terms of pure horniness, the enemies-to-lovers predictability of Anyone But You probably has it over this movie.

So There’s Nothing to be Gained From This Experience? We Should Skip One Night Only?

I didn’t say that! Gluck has a feel for how to mix sweet-natured yearning with genuine gags (there’s a great one involving the kinds of universally known pop songs he loves to hate to love), and for the more prurient interests, Monica Barbaro wears an extremely skimpy dress (and occasionally less) like a superhero costume, and as if to make up for his intentionally uninspired corresponding polo-shirt uniform, Turner does flat-out strip down at one point. Both them, Barbaro especially, are charismatic and just plain easy to watch. You’d want them to hook up even if there wasn’t a ticking clock. Beneath the movie’s screenwriter nonsense, there’s a sense of attempting to locate something genuine amidst the hustle and bustle of romantic and/or sexual clichés. It’s an uphill battle for the characters, but an easy little logic-skirmish for rom-com fans. This places the movie at odds with its own messaging about forging genuine connection.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.As far as rom-coms go, well, One Night Only is what’s playing, and it’s fun. In other words, it’s not a future classic; it’s Mr. or Ms. Right Now.