Gardner and Fanny Church are preparing to move out of their Beacon Hill house to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. Gardner, once a famous poet, now is retired. He is living with progressing dementia as his wife Fanny valiantly tries to keep them both afloat. They have asked their daughter, Mags, to come home and help them move. Mags agrees, for she hopes as well to finally paint their portrait. She is now on the verge of artistic celebrity herself and hopes, by painting her parents, to come to terms with them and they with her.

The play tells the story of a family living with a diagnosis of dementia, and while it touches on the challenges and frustrations associated with this, it also offers tender, hopeful moments of love and truth within the relationships depicted.