A Month of Summer

Rebecca Macklin is a 45-year-old immigration lawyer in Santa Monica, California, whose ordered life begins to fracture. She suspects her husband, Kyle, a real estate attorney, of having an affair with a client named Susan Sewell. Before she can confront him, she learns that her elderly father, Edward Parker, who has Alzheimer's disease, has been found alone in a cold, dark house in Dallas with the stove burners on. His wife, Hanna Beth Parker, suffered a stroke weeks earlier and is in a nursing center. Teddy, Hanna Beth's adult son who has developmental disabilities, was found lost on the city transit system trying to reach his mother. Rebecca has not spoken to her father in 33 years, not since he left her mother, Marilyn, for Hanna Beth when Rebecca was 12. She refused all contact, returning birthday cards unopened. Now she has no choice but to fly to Dallas.

In the nursing center, Hanna Beth narrates her confinement. A brain stem stroke has left her nearly unable to move or speak. She dreads Rebecca's arrival, fearing Rebecca will close the house, institutionalize Edward and Teddy, and leave. Her days are shaped by small kindnesses: Claude Fisher, an elderly resident in the next room, wheels in daily to raise her window blind and tell stories about driving lumber trains in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Mary, a young nurse's aide, is the only staff member who treats Hanna Beth with consistent gentleness.

Rebecca arrives at the house on Blue Sky Hill Court to find it in severe disrepair: rotten food, dirty dishes, and an almost empty refrigerator. Her father, confused and paranoid, believes intruders he calls "those people" have invaded. He does not recognize Rebecca, calling her "Marilyn." Teddy, however, greets her with overwhelming joy, calling her "A-becca" and "my sit-ter." He tells Rebecca that his parents always said he had a sister in California. He has prepared her old bedroom with a childhood photograph of her leaping toward her father's outstretched arms in a swimming pool.

The next morning, the power is shut off for nonpayment. Over the following days, Rebecca restores utilities, cleans the house, and searches for Kay-Kay, the caretaker who vanished after Hanna Beth's stroke. Edward's paranoia worsens each evening, and he screams at Teddy, who copes by rising early, making peanut butter sandwiches, and retreating to the backyard to tend seedlings. When Teddy disappears one afternoon, Rebecca finds him near a construction site carrying trash he uses as plant pots. In the car afterward, he asks Rebecca to promise she will not leave without telling him. She realizes he is not parroting her words but seeking his own assurance. A bond forms between them.

Mary visits at Hanna Beth's insistence, confirming that Hanna Beth is improving but will need help at home. Rebecca arranges for Edward to be admitted to the hospital, where Dr. Amadi, his local physician, corrects his medications. During one visit, Edward momentarily seems to recognize her, saying, "Tell Rebecca her old dad's gonna be fine." She flees the room in tears. Meanwhile, Kyle calls: he has fired their au pair, Isha, after she made an inappropriate advance, and their nine-year-old daughter, Macey, has injured her ankle at school. Macey insists she does not need her mother, a declaration that deepens Rebecca's loneliness.

At the nursing center, Hanna Beth's world expands. Ouita Mae Barnhill, an elderly woman Rebecca met on the plane to Dallas and the grandmother of Hanna Beth's doctor, begins reading aloud to her. When Ouita Mae reminisces about a boy she kissed at a livestock auction decades ago, Hanna Beth realizes the boy was Claude, who has told her his own version of the same story. Hanna Beth tries desperately to connect them but cannot form the words. She also discovers that Mary and her two sons are homeless, sleeping in their van. Claude covers for them and helps pay for medication.

Rebecca brings Teddy and eventually Edward to visit Hanna Beth. Edward enters the room on Teddy's arm, whispers her pet name, "Bethie," sinks to his knees beside her wheelchair, and sings "Let Me Call You Sweetheart." Mary offers to move into the garage apartment with her boys, sharing the space with Ifeoma, a night-shift nurse from Ghana. Rebecca agrees. Teddy fills the apartment with blooming plants to welcome them.

As Rebecca investigates her father's finances, she finds monthly deposits being routed to a company called LMK Limited, Inc., draining the accounts. Teddy reveals that Kay-Kay took Edward's computer to a church rummage sale. Rebecca retrieves it with the help of Pastor Al, the local church pastor. In a locked desk drawer, she finds her baby book and a sealed envelope containing a letter and a safe-deposit box key. In the letter, written while Edward's mind was still clear, he tells her he has gathered what matters most. On the computer, a folder bearing her name holds years of downloaded photos of Macey and Rebecca. Her father had been watching her life from afar.

The safe-deposit box contains a letter revealing the truth: Teddy is Edward's biological son. Edward and Hanna Beth had a relationship before Edward married Marilyn. Marilyn knew about the pregnancy and conspired with her family's lawyer to send Hanna Beth a letter falsely claiming Edward denied responsibility. Rebecca confronts Hanna Beth, who confirms everything. Rebecca is shattered. Her mother, whom she nursed through terminal illness, never told her she had a brother. Hanna Beth strokes Rebecca's hair as she weeps and whispers, "Lovvy you." The moment is cut short by a phone call: A man has arrived at the house with legal papers claiming the property has been sold.

Rebecca races home. Alone in the bathroom, she takes a pregnancy test. Two lines appear. She faints. The next morning, Kyle flies to Dallas with Macey, bringing information from a private investigator. Kenita Kendal, known as Kay-Kay, lost her nursing license after pleading guilty to illegal prescription drug sales in Florida, then moved to Texas under her maiden name. LMK Limited is her company. She siphoned roughly 70,000 dollars from Edward's accounts and obtained a fraudulent deed by getting the confused Edward to sign it. However, Edward, while still lucid, had established a Blue Sky Real Estate Trust that predates the deed and protects the house. Kyle arranges a court filing to invalidate the claim.

On Hanna Beth's birthday, the family stages a surprise celebration at the house. Before leaving the nursing center, Hanna Beth makes one final attempt to connect Claude and Ouita Mae. When a photograph of young Claude on his yellow horse is produced, Ouita Mae recognizes the boy from the auction and whispers, "I think we've met before."

At the house, Edward greets Hanna Beth in a gray suit, lucid and tender. Macey presents roses and calls Hanna Beth "Grandma Parker." In the kitchen, Rebecca and Kyle confront their marriage. He admits he was briefly flattered by Susan Sewell's attention but insists nothing happened, accusing Rebecca of letting her mother's distrust poison their relationship. Rebecca recognizes the truth: She has been casting Kyle in her father's role and herself in her mother's, waiting for history to repeat. She tells Kyle she is pregnant.

In the garden, surrounded by Teddy's flowers, the family gathers: Edward and Hanna Beth side by side, Macey with roses, Teddy cheering, Mary and her boys, Ifeoma, Claude and Ouita Mae, and Kyle holding Rebecca from behind. A leaf falls from the pecan tree. Rebecca thinks of a Japanese gardener she once watched in San Diego, a man who seemed to know which leaves belonged and which did not. She finally understands how he knew the leaf was meant to stay.