
Kate a grieving semi-alcoholic film student invites an elderly woman to take part in an oral-history documentary Jean declines but makes her a bizarre counter-offer if Kate can stay sober for four days she will tell her a story If she can stay sober beyond that there will be another & then another amounting to the entire history of one family's life Gradually Jean offers a heart-breaking account not only of her own history
- a lost lover a family scarred by war
- but of the American century itself; as a deep connection emerges between the women which will transform both of their lives