A son tells a series of stories, most of them about his father and stepfather. As the son describes a robbery that took place at his house in high school and his experiences with his father, a former Jehovah's Witness and current alcoholic, he begins to recall details from his childhood.

When a mother's memory begins to deteriorate, her daughter catalogs her memories, both the ones she does and doesn't remember.

A divorced 16 year old girl reflects on how the sexual trauma she experienced as a child perpetuates in her relationships with men throughout her life, forcing herself to grow up too early and leaving her starved for affection and love.

An encounter with a little boy and his abusive mother at an airport causes an old woman to reflect upon her relationship with her children and her late, depressive, and abusive ex-husband.

Four women–a retired dancer enacting an old dance, a grandmother preparing a birthday dinner for her family, her granddaughter participating in a genetics study, and a researcher quantifying the burden of old memories–all unite under the combined weight of their war-burdened pasts in the contemporary United States.

An older woman in a small town visits the scene of a recent car accident that took the life of a high school girl on her granddaughter's softball team. She is reminded of her own daughter's passing over twenty years ago. Now, the woman and her family confront their past, while the grieving softball team prepares for their upcoming tournament.

As an old woman revisits her family's quintessentially American history, she finds a way to respect and love her parents, despite the scandals and tragedies they endured.

Shorty after WWII, a young girl and her mother are forced to move into her grandmother's mysterious and bleak house after her beloved father dies from a heart attack.

While she prepares for church one morning, an elderly woman reflects on her tumultuous relationship with her son-in-law, a Vietnam War veteran, and her daughter and granddaughters, who she couldn’t protect from his violence.

In the late 20th century, an aging couple's daughter returns to live with her parents in an attempt to flee her failing marriage. While the mother easily slips back into her maternal role, the arthritic father struggles to empathize with his youngest child, and, in his increasing frustration, commits an unforgivable act that isolates him from his family.