A family with an abusive father, a sensitive son, and a mother out of her depth: we see them when Michael is about 12 and when he's in his 30's, a writer of romance novels, going home for his mother and sister's college graduations. We go back and forth between the two periods: when Michael is a boy, the pressure builds to the point when the thin thread keeping them as a family threatens to break, and there's a fight. During Michael's trip home, there's an unexpected death which prolongs his stay and brings to the light his relationship with his father, his aunt, and her young children. Michael's estranged wife joins them for the funeral.