Successful Carolinian George Johnsten meets Chicago art gallery owner Madeleine at an electoral benefit art auction- love at first sight. Madeleine decides to meet a Southern original artist, so George seizes the opportunity to come along and present her to his North Carolina parents Eugene and Peg, drop-out brother Johny and his high-pregnant wife Ashley. Confronting the outsider soon opens a can of worms as emotions revive or emerge, like admiration and jealousy. Written by KGF Vissers

Precocious young Harriet (Evan Rachel Wood) lives with her much older sister, Gwen (Mary Stuart Masterson), at a New Hampshire motel owned by their mother (Cathy Moriarty), and dreams of a life beyond her neglectful family and stultifying town. When Ricky (Kevin Bacon), a mentally disabled man, stays at the motel, Harriet finds him to be kinder and more interesting than anyone she has ever known before. After tragedy strikes, Harriet and Ricky cling to each other ever more tightly.