Sammy Prescott, raised in the small upstate New York town of Scottsville and orphaned as a child, is now a single mother who is extremely devoted to and protective of her 8-year-old son, Rudy. Unfazed by its social limitations, she is content to live in the comfort and security of the small town in which she grew up, working in the local bank and attending Sunday church services.

She is thrilled to receive a letter from her brother, Terry. indicating that he is coming for a visit. They have remained close over the years while leading very different separate lives. Terry wanders from state to state, working odd jobs, getting into bar fights: spending nights in jail and getting into trouble with women. He Is totally charming but irresponsible and seriously self-destructive.

Terry arrives with the intention of borrowing money and getting out of Scottsville as soon as possible. Once there. however, he prolongs his visit with Sammy, much to her pleasure. Quickly filling a void in the lives of both her and Rudy. Engaging in some heavy male bonding with his neplhew, although Terry's choices of activities with the young boy (such as taking him to a pool hall late one night) are often questionable.

Temporarily freed of the con-straints of single motherhood, Sammy feels reinvigorated and begins to break free of her old routines. Armed with a new attitude, a better sense of herself and a zest for life, she begins to re-evaluate the choices she has made - and has yet to make - in her life.

Yet in a string of increasingly traumatic incidents, Terry disappoints Rudy time and time again until Sammy is almost frantic, torn between her desire to help her brother and her maternal instinct to protect her son from getting hurt by yet another 'father figure.'

Everything comes to a boiling point when Terry brings Rudy to meet Rudy Sr. - an ill-fated encounter that lands Terry in the back seat of a police car once again. The fallout from Terry's accumulated mistakes pushes his relationship with Sammy to the breaking point

In the end, each sibling must confront some hard choices about their future as individuals and as a family.