A woman who has endured two strokes attempts to lead a normal life with her son, despite her expectation of a third attack coming soon.

In the era following the American Civil War, a man is charged with fulfilling his father’s duty to visit his elderly, dementia-suffering aunt every year on her birthday to give her a pair of tennis shoes. During the visitation, the elderly woman’s confused memories force him to confront painful remembrances of his own.