Three sisters find their lives spinning out of control in the wake of their parents' sudden, unexpected divorce.

The story of a very dysfunctional family and what happens when the parents divorce. Eve (Geraldine Page) and Arthur (EG Marshall) are a 60-something couple, recently separated. They have three adult daughters - Renata (Diane Keaton), Joey (Mary Beth Hurt) and Flyn (Kristin Griffith). Renata is a poet and is married to Frederick (Richard Jordan). Joey is (reluctantly) in advertising and is married to Mike (Sam Waterston). Flyn is a film and TV actress. Eve is an incredibly negative woman and this has had a toxic effect on her children. This results in stifling, unsupportive relationships and joyless lives.—grantss

In their early sixties, upper middle class suburban New Yorkers Arthur and Eve, an attorney and an interior decorator respectively, are recently separated on Arthur's initiative. Although he has long felt the want to leave Eve - he believing that she having created an environment in which the family existed and not truly lived, which manifested itself in the control shown in her interior decorating choices - Arthur decided to do so now because their three daughters are grown and on their own. Already suffering from clinical depression, Eve further suffers a nervous breakdown because of the separation, which to her was unexpected. Eve expects that Arthur will eventually come back to her. The separation and breakdown affect the three daughters in different ways, and exacerbates issues already existing in their lives. Renata, the eldest, is the talented one, talent which Eve admires. Renata is a renowned poet, who lives largely on Arthur being her benefactor. Renata is married to Frederick, a novelist, whose works achieve little acclaim. As such, Frederick feels emasculated by Renata's success, she who states that her praise for his work is truthful, and not just a means to stoke his ego. Joey, the second who suffers from middle child syndrome, is the bright but directionless one living in Renata's shadow. Joey has moved from one unfulfilling career to another. Due solely to proximity, Joey is largely tasked with Eve's post-hospitalization care, despite she knowing that her mother treats her like the unwanted child. Conversely, Arthur has always viewed Joey as the special one to who he always looks for validation. Joey is in a long term cohabitational relationship with Michael, a political activist who knows that Eve doesn't like him and who in turn doesn't like that Joey lets Eve run roughshod over their lives. And Flyn, the youngest, is the pretty one. She is a Hollywood television actress who fully realizes that what minor fame and fortune she has received is solely due to her looks. The lives of this collective becomes even more complicated when Arthur begins dating Pearl, who is the antithesis of Eve in every respect and who he wants to marry.—Huggo

Homage to Ingmar Bergman in this family drama involving a fashionable Long Island interior designer who tries to impose her overbearing, critical standards on her husband and her three grown daughters. The film is a realistic look at the relationships among one artistically-oriented family; one daughter is a successful writer; the second is looking for an artistic outlet; and the third is an actress. The mother has been deserted by her husband, their father. She thinks and hopes they may reconcile, but she soon learns that he has other thoughts that circle about a new acquaintance, a woman who has had two husbands and is still lively.—alfiehitchie

Arthur decides to leave his wife Eve. Their three adult daughters Joey, Flyn and Renata must suddenly face up to the disintegration of the family: Eve feels quite helpless but Arthur is reluctant to come back. And the daughters also have some personal problems in their relationship with each other, their spouses and their parents...—Yepok