New York siblings Laura and Elliot receive word of their mother Lilly's imminent death from cancer and break an eighteen month estrangement to rush to her side. Upon arrival they find that Lilly has a house guest, Ted, an attractive "groundskeeper" half her age. It was he, not Lilly, who informed the kids of their mother's condition. Suspicious of his presence, the kids want him gone, but Lilly wants him around at least till her kids have gone. With death coming, Lilly advises her kids on life and helps drop the barriers that have grown between them, but upon her death Elliot discovers that Ted's motives for hanging around aren't purely altruistic.