After Augusta Iris kicks Gordie, her artist husband, out of the house over his extramarital affair, she spends weeks in bed, barely speaking, consumed by grief and repressed anger. When her stoned-out teenage son, Henry, a high-school dropout who mows lawns, learns that his father is living with a lover, he builds a bizarre sculpture in Dad’s studio to work out his rage. Meanwhile, Henry’s asocial brother, Mathew, a Harvard PH.D. candidate in chemistry, returns home to comfort Mom. A recluse and health-food fanatic, Mathew hides in his room to avoid Bette Mack, Henry’s feisty live-in girlfriend, who attempts to revive the comatose family with peppy advice and sassy critiques.