The story is set in Guagua, Pampanga a decade after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo which ravaged the province with lahar. It follows the lives of woodcarver Rodolfo "Mang Rudy" Manansala and his three daughters and their relationships with the people close to them in the span of seven summers. Youngest daughter Grace marries mama's-boy Conrad and faces the reality of leaving her ancestral home, to which she is deeply rooted, to live with her in-laws. Grace. Much against her will, to the point of staging an escape, she yields to the dictates of tradition. Yet she manages to cope with married life, and in her fourth year of marriage she's pregnant with her second child. Middle daughter Lourdes, married to weakling Andy Pineda with whom she has a daughter, has an illicit affair with a bank manager, which gives Mang Rudy a heart attack and confines him to bed. For a while numbed by his wife's infidelity, Andy realizes his insignificance and retaliates by beating up and nearly killing Lourdes. Lourdes atones for her guilt by ministering to Andy's wounds after he joins the rituals of the flagellants during the Holy Week. However, they both decide to separate. Eldest daughter Jess is a lesbian whose bitter luck in life is being unwanted by her own father. Yet she serves Mang Rudy to the hilt after he gets bedridden, and she lets her girlfriend Rowena move in with them, not as much for their conveniences as lovers but so Rowena can help with the chores and looking after Mang Rudy. But when a conflict arises between Lourdes and Rowena, Mang Rudy sends Rowena away. A year later, Mang Rudy succumbs to a second attack and when he dies several months later, Rowena sets foot in the ancestral house to pay her last respects. At the wake, Rowena realizes that, like Andy, she has never belonged and decides to leave Jess. She realigns herself with normal procedures by getting married while Jess and her sisters move on with life. The story is told in three segments, each segment told from a different sister's viewpoint. Attached to each segment are social occasions popularly observed in the Philippines, each with a symbolic motif represented by the elements sun, fire, water, air, blood, moon, and earth. With Rowena's wedding at the end of the film, as in Grace's wedding at the start, a full cycle of life has transpired.