Moments in four different years in the lives of the Harper family beginning with 1955 as a hopeful Eunice prepares to go to a party, and her brother Phillip, a recent college graduate, departs for New York. In 1963, a married Eunice and her husband, Ed Higgins, help Mama welcome novelist Phillip home for a visit. In 1973, a divorced Eunice is living with Mama. In 1978, Eunice, Ellen, and Phillip return from Mama's funeral and Eunice makes a painful realization about her life.