An extended family gathers in Maryland for Christmas in the 1990s. Therese is a county circuit-court judge who is married to Ray, who runs a roofing business. Ray is dyslexic and undereducated compared to the rest of Therese's family: her younger brother Andrew and his wife Pam, her younger sister Ann and her fiancé Tad, and her parents, whose house they are gathered at. Ray seems to be symbolically even less educated than Winnie, Andrew and Pam's toddler, who reads. During the spare moments before Therese and Ray have to leave for their flight, the family plays a game of charades. During the game, Therese reflects on the disconnect that has grown between her and her siblings. She is frustrated by their pretentiousness and theatricality. She admires her husband's innocent and amicable nature in comparison--but she is also having an affair with someone at work, because "once in a while, by God, she needs that," that being "sex with a man who is not dyslexic." When Ann makes a political comment Therese disagrees with, Therese goes off on her and says it is time to go. First, however, Ray finishes his turn for charades. Therese thinks about how she will never love anyone half as much as she loves Ray.