Macon's broken leg brings him back home to be cared for by his sister Rose. Macon's two brothers live there too; Charles has never married and Porter returned after his divorce. All the Leary kids are back together again in the house where they grew up. Macon thinks of his childhood and how they were raised by their grandparents after their mother left with one of her many boyfriends. Macon's mother had been widowed when their father was killed in the war and her life was a string of boyfriends, new apartments, new causes, hobbies, and whatever else she could throw in. Change was believed in as if it were a religion. Macon's mother considered her children very boring; surely, they weren't really hers, were they?
In 1950, she decided to marry an engineer.....
