Over dinner, an observer reflects on mothers and their omnipresent prevalence in children’s lives.

A man thinks about his relationship with his parents (especially his mother) as he watches them grow old. He then realizes that he is now old too.

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.

A college counselor watches anxiously as her teenage son applies to college without her help. As her son plans for his future, the counselor and her husband reflect on how quickly their lives have changed, seeking ways to steady themselves in the midst of middle age.

A suburban middle-aged wife in contemporary America organizes an intervention with her children for their loving but alcoholic father. As the pieces come together, she tries to back away from the plan out of solidarity with her husband because of how he dealt with her past transgressions.

When a man's son visits with his new girlfriend, the father worries that she is only interested in the grand house and family money. The father knows he should not intervene in his son's relationship, but the more time he spends with them, the more he dislikes her and the more difficult it gets to stay quiet.

After subconsciously imagining getting a divorce from his wife, a man examines his marriage and tries to convince himself that he still loves his family enough to stay with them.

A blissfully naïve young couple hopes to avoid the fate of the husband's unhappy parents, but as his jealous mother, children, and resentments come between them, the young couple falls into the same pitfalls.

When a teenage girl meets with her father to remind him of his late alimony payments, she feels disappointed by his unhelpful reaction.

In an attempt to impress his emotionally distant father, a boy ridicules his mother, who has loved him unconditionally even in his father's absence. Wracked with guilt, he yearns for her forgiveness - only to find that she does not hold it against him.