Sana Vincent's mother, Rose, has been dead for one and a half years, but until now — a month after his remarriage — her father has been unable to pick up her ashes from the funeral home. After an awkward pause for the undertaker to find the ashes in the back, she and Delilah, one of her sister, drive home through their sleepy Boston suburb. Delilah remarks that the ashes look like shells. When Rose died, their huge, Catholic family was devastated. A train hit her car on the way to the market; the shock had been absolute. She did know, though, that she wanted her ashes to be scattered in the thoroughfare, a beautiful passage among some islands on the Maine coast that their family always loved. Delilah, though, wants to scatter some of them in their family's home garden, and their father only agrees after a fight. They do so the next morning and leave for Maine straightaway. There, the whole family unites, including Gus, their nomadic brother, and his girlfriend. The next morning, the kids and their father leave her and their stepmother in the cabin and go get the boat ready. As they cast off, they reminisce about the past. Eventually, they reach the starkly beautiful thoroughfare, and each of the kids scatters part of Rose's ashes in their own way. Their father, bites back tears and finishes the job, and the family hugs each other as they wonder what to do next.