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