Richard and Joan Maple have been together for almost twenty years, and while they still get along, they no longer make each other happy, so they decide to separate for the summer before they decide whether to get a divorce. All through the spring they worry about it, but they want to wait until all their children are home again before they share the sad news. After Judith, their eldest, returns home from a year studying abroad in England, they wait a few days for her to get reacclimatized before they tell the children. Richard wants to tell them all at once, but Joan thinks it's better to treat them individually, and let them each process the news in their own way. They make a plan to tell each of their four children one by one, starting with the oldest and working their way down. On Friday, the day before Richard plans on moving out, they throw Judith a celebratory welcome home dinner. All day, Richard worries about the night, since he and Joan plan on taking Judith on an after-dinner walk to share the news. To occupy himself, Richard does odd jobs around the house, fixing up the tennis court that they had installed on their property last summer and replacing a lock on their screened porch. Judith sits on the porch, talking about her time in England. This causes Richard to break, tears leaking from his eyes from now through dinner. They eat with three out of four of their children. Dickie, their seventeen-year-old, went straight from work to a rock concert and won't be home until late. Everyone tries to ignore Richard's tears through dinner, but as they begin to clear their plates, the youngest, Margaret, asks Joan why her dad was crying. Joan abandons their plan and tells Margaret about the separation, which brings everyone back to the table. As the parents explain the situation, John, the fifteen-year-old, starts to act up. He has gotten drunk from the champagne they had for Judith. John eats a napkin and a cigarette. Richard takes his son outside and they have a talk. John says he's more upset about his school year than the separation. Richard realizes that he has been too preoccupied with the situation all year that he didn't realize his son was unhappy. After their talk, they go back inside, where they find that Judith and Joan have opened a bottle of wine, the champagne now empty. That night, as they get ready for bed, Richard tells Joan that he's relieved to have gotten everything out of the way. She reminds him that he still needs to tell Dickie, who's train gets back a little after 1:00am. With this on his mind, Richard has trouble sleeping. He decides to get up and pick his son up from the train station, though he dreads the conversation to come. Richard picks up Dickie and a few of his friends. After he drops the friends off, he tells his son about the separation. Dickie takes it well, giving unemotional responses, which helps Richard keep his composure. They get home and Richard changes back into his pajamas. He wakes up Joan and asks her to say goodnight to Dickie. Richard goes to the boy's room a few minutes later, going in after his wife leaves. As Dickie lies in bed, facing towards the wall, Richard tells him how much he loves him. He leans forward to kiss the back of his son's head, but Dickie turns around, his face covered in tears, and he asks his father why. But Richard has already forgotten why.