 A character-driven film about an upper middle class woman (Field) who is forced, after her divorce, to take a job as a housekeeper to earn money. The woman she works for (Davis) is an inwardly angry woman because of her own failing marriage, plus having a grown daughter who "specializes in being bad." So it is that Davis takes out her resentments on the new housekeeper who has been able to accumulate friends, despite being constantly harassed and reprimanded by Davis. As time passes, however, Davis  marriage finally does collapse, and Field is at last able to befriend Davis and support her through her impending divorce.