Shelley is a middle-aged nurse in Wisconsin whose daughter, Isabel, comes out as a lesbian. Shelley is taken aback and envies the nonchalance with which her husband Ian, Isabel’s step-father, receives the news. When Isabel brings a girl home for dinner, Shelley tries to adjust to the reality of her daughter’s sexuality, but cannot shake her discomfort. She contacts her ex-husband, Isabel’s father, who is a doctor who works at the same hospital as her. He encourages her to accept their daughter for who she is, although Shelley is preoccupied with the prospect of never having grandchildren. At the hospital, she attends to her patient, Reed, who is dying of AIDS and has already lost his lover to the disease. She notices the toll that the illness has taken on his body since she last cared for him, and she asks him if he would be glad to be gay if AIDS never existed; he refuses to answer. As she imagines what it must have been like when Reed brought his lover home to his parents, a group of doctors enter the room and begin to patronizingly question Reed about his well being. Reed proclaims that “This is not the Phil Donahue Show! This is my life!” which catalyzes a partial change of heart in Shelley. She considers the fleeting nature of life and time spent with loved ones, and determines to accept her daughter, although she admits to herself that she would nonetheless prefer for Isabel to be straight. Shelley and Ian spend the weekend at their countryside farm. As the couple spend time outdoors, Shelley contemplates the similarities between the summer giving way to fall and her daughter slipping away from her.