It's been a year since the death of her husband, Henry, and
Emily Maxwell gathers her family in Lake Chautauqua in
western New York for what will be their last vacation at
their summer cottage before she sells the property. Joining
her is her sister-in-law, Arlene, a retired teacher who
silently mourns the passing of the lake house from her
family's hands and still endures the wound of a love lost
long ago. Emily's firebrand daughter, Meg, a recovering
alcoholic recently separated from her husband, brings her
children from Detroit, the blossoming Sarah and the timid
Justin. Emily's son, Ken, a struggling photographer who has
quit his job and mortgaged his future to pursue his art,
comes accompanied by his wife, Lisa, who is secretly
heartened to be visiting the house for the last time and
not-so-secretly cool to her prickly mother-in-law - and
their children, the bookish Ella and the troubled Sam." As
O'Nan inhabits the mind and heart of each member of the
house through the course of their week together, he
illuminates the many lives of the Maxwell family as memories
of summers past resurface, old rivalries flare up, and love
is rekindled and born anew by the shores of the lake.