A four-year-old Southern boy can read novels but has never spoken a word in his life. When he goes to his family's Fourth of July picnic, he must decide whether it is the appropriate moment to speak—or if there ever will be one.

When a sick father tells his son a new story of how he came into the United States from Mexico, different from the one the whole family was familiar with, an argument ensues between mother and father about the true history of their family.