It is Thanksgiving in North Bank and Sully, old Miss Beryls feckless lodger, does not have much to be thankful for. His arthritic knee is acting up and so is his truck; moreover, his ex-wife is at the end of her tether, his mistress is giving him the cold shoulder, the grinning ghost of his father wont leave him alone, and Carl Roebuck refuses to pay him for a trench he dug last summer. The future looks bleak when Sullys son Peter, a morose college professor, returns, offering Sully a chance to address a lifetime of neglected responsibilities and threatening his carefree existence.