Stumbling home drunk and with a swollen fist, a man named Murphy makes love to his girlfriend, Annie, while begging her to forgive him. In the morning, they leave each other solemnly for the Christmas holidays to visit their respective families for two weeks. From Kansas, Murphy heads to Missouri to see his wife and son and join them to see his wife’s parents in Illinois. However, when they arrive, Murphy says he cannot face them; he is planning to officially divorce his wife for Annie. His wife calls him a child.  To cope, Murphy searches for gin and calls Annie, who tells him that a mutual friend named Glover is teaching her how to play cello, further upsetting him. Murphy also visits his own parents, and his mother tells him that he is making the biggest mistake in deciding to leave Patricia, his wife. The night of their reunion, Murphy leaves and drinks until the morning, only to vomit on the curb. When he returns, his mother complains that Annie called the family phone the night prior, Christmas Eve, and they continue to argue about the indecency of Annie’s decision. Murphy’s father yells at Murphy, too, asking how Murphy could possibly abandon his son, who he named after himself.  Again wanting to cope, Murphy makes love to his wife. She asks her to tell her he loves her even if he doesn’t mean it, but he finds that he cannot. He then takes his son to the zoo and buys him popcorn, and when his son asks him to sleep next to him at night, he does. Even so, Murphy returns to his parents’ home and apologizes that he cannot stay. Before Murphy returns to Kansas, his son asks him why he doesn’t want to be his father and pretends to shoot him with a finger-gun.  When Murphy arrives at his apartment, Annie and Glover are practicing cello together, and after Glover leaves, Murphy asks Annie if she will leave him for Glover. She tells him not to be silly, and they make love, but Murphy cannot forget his son pretending to shoot him with a gun.