 Three grown daughters (Cathrine Corpeny, Wendy Hoopes, Deborah Hedwall) try to find their own personal ways to deal with their dysfunctional parents (Olympia Dukakis, Roy Scheider). The mother is an unorthodox woman with out-of-the-ordinary ideas, including one where she takes a jackhammer to the basement floor of their house to build a cavern where the family can live better. Their father, an ex-cop, disappeared 15 years earlier and then re-appeared with no explanation and commandeers his wife s project by placing the whole family in a survivalist situation. Edward Herrmann, plays the priest-brother to the mother, who is forced to counsel the family despite his own problems with his faith.