An elderly southern man travels to New York City to live with his daughter when he can no longer care for himself. While there, his hatred for his environment reveals his virulent racism and bitter dissatisfaction with his lot in life.

After her mother’s death, an imaginative 9-year-old girl bullied by kids at school and by her father, who has a new girlfriend, at home finds comfort only in her dog.

A four-year-old Southern boy can read novels but has never spoken a word in his life. When he goes to his family's Fourth of July picnic, he must decide whether it is the appropriate moment to speak—or if there ever will be one.