Make Nice

The Pickford family reunites for a week at the Grand Hotel, a lavish resort on a car-free island in Lake Michigan. The trip was planned by their recently deceased mother, Lydia, before her sudden death on a tennis court. Viv, the eldest sibling, arrives with her 14-year-old daughter, Ash, and reunites with her brother Pete, a malacologist (a scientist who studies mollusks) based in coastal Georgia. She tells Pete her husband, Warren, could not come due to work, but the truth is that Viv discovered Warren is gay on the day her mother died and has told no one. At check-in, they learn their estranged youngest brother, Corey, has already arrived. The siblings have not seen Corey in years; he was absent even from their mother's funeral.

Corey has traveled from Queens, New York, carrying a stolen package of cocaine he and his roommate, Andrew, took from an unconscious man in their apartment building. He hopes to sell it to wealthy guests and start fresh. At lunch, Viv confronts Corey about his absence. He claims he was in jail for a minor financial crime and says he is trying to change. Viv remains skeptical.

Pete is the front-runner for the Stillman Berry Chair, a prestigious endowed position at his university. He has also discovered a new snail species, which he named Planorbella lydiavis after their mother, and carries a glass orb containing a specimen to present to his father. That evening, their father, H.L., gathers his children on the hotel porch and publicly shames Corey, revealing that Lydia had been secretly sending Corey money for years. Pete presents the orb, but the moment quickly deflates. Ash challenges her grandfather's bootstrap immigrant narrative, arguing that their ancestor benefited from racial segregation. Corey defends Ash, and H.L. leaves in irritation. Pete later notices his father forgot the orb.

On Tuesday, Pete receives devastating news: A famous science documentarian is being recruited for the Berry Chair, and Dave Campbell, the campus power broker who encouraged Pete to apply, now opposes his candidacy. Meanwhile, Andrew ambushes Corey in his hotel room, having tracked him to the island. He demands the cocaine back, explaining that the drug's owners have been terrorizing their building. Corey persuades Andrew to give him 24 hours to sell it.

Viv attends a yoga class and breaks down crying when the instructor asks participants to say their own name followed by "I love you," triggering memories of her mother. Afterward, she encounters Robbie Coleman, her first love from childhood summers on the island. Now a divorced father, Robbie reveals he wrote her letters after her family left, but she never received them because her father sold the house abruptly. Viv texts Warren, telling him to go sleep with a man, insisting she will not end her marriage on a hunch, and leaves her wedding ring on the toilet tank. Ash, meanwhile, already knows about her father's sexuality, having discovered his browsing history on her own.

Pete, wandering the shoreline, finds a boy named Oliver on the dock where his childhood house once stood. Oliver has a pet snail that Pete identifies as a Carthusian snail, an invasive European species he has been searching for to complete his research. Pete takes the snail despite Oliver's distress, ignoring pleas from Oliver's mother, Rebecca, who explains that Oliver is a highly sensitive child struggling since his father left. Back at the hotel, a program assistant named Rachel tells Pete the find will not change the committee's mind and that his colleagues view him as too nice to lead. In a surge of rage, Pete stomps the snail to death on the bathroom floor.

Corey's attempts to sell the cocaine fail repeatedly: A prospect at the hotel bar balks at the quantity, a waiter named Dixon flatly refuses, and a nighttime meeting with a local buyer stalls over price. Ash, observing from the lobby, notices a man watching Corey from behind a newspaper. She later enters Corey's room using a key card she mistakenly believes is Pete's and walks in on Corey and Andrew arguing about the drugs. She hides in the bathtub, overhears everything, and escapes undetected.

On Wednesday, Pete returns to Rebecca and Oliver's house and spends the day collecting snails with the boy. He stays for Oliver's birthday party and bonds with Rebecca, who tells him the property's previous owner was sued for stealing intellectual property, needed cash, and sold at a loss. Pete realizes this owner was his father and that H.L.'s self-made success story rests on something stolen. That night, Pete and Rebecca sleep together. Viv also invites Robbie to her hotel room. The next morning, the yoga instructor warns Viv that Robbie routinely pursues women in her classes, and their reconnection ends unresolved.

Thursday brings the week's crises to a head. Pete wakes in Rebecca's bed to find her estranged husband, Curtis, has returned. Curtis attacks Pete, who fights back violently, fueled by suppressed rage. Oliver witnesses the brawl and has a severe meltdown. Rebecca rushes to comfort him while waving Pete away.

At lunch, the siblings piece together their father's deceptions. Pete shares what Rebecca told him about the lawsuit. Viv connects the abrupt house sale to Robbie's undelivered letters and reveals that she and Warren are separating because of Warren's sexuality. Corey then visits his father and confronts him directly: H.L. used earnings from Corey's childhood cereal commercial to settle the lawsuit, then publicly shamed Lydia for trying to pay Corey back. Corey refuses his father's offer to restore the payments and demands only an honest confession.

Meanwhile, Andrew spots Ash in the hotel, recognizes her from the room, and drags her into Corey's room, accusing her of stealing the cocaine. Ash's aborted phone call to Viv registers as a voicemail. Warren, who has arrived at the island unexpectedly, helps Viv track Ash's phone. He kicks the door open and subdues Andrew. Viv and Warren let Andrew go rather than involve the police in Corey's drug scheme.

Pete learns Oliver has gone missing. He races to the dock, spots the boy adrift in a rowboat, and swims through choppy water and a rip current to reach him. Pete talks Oliver into returning and pushes the boat to shore. Curtis and police are waiting, but the officers note that Pete just rescued the boy and tell him to move along.

Viv summons Corey, who confesses everything: Andrew, the cocaine, and the truth that he was never in jail but simply could not face their mother's funeral. Her anger softens, and she hugs him. At the family's final dinner, H.L. confesses that he took Corey's commercial earnings to settle the lawsuit and unfairly condemned Lydia for trying to compensate Corey. Warren joins the dinner. Afterward, Viv tells Warren to stay in her life and watches her husband and daughter fall asleep, contemplating an uncertain future.

On Friday, the family departs. Ash rides past the golf course savoring a secret: She took the cocaine from Corey's room and scattered it across the sand traps. Corey boards a westbound bus alone, watching mile markers count down outside the window, resolving to build a real life. Pete makes a final visit to the dock, holding the Planorbella lydiavis orb and intending to throw it into the lake. Rebecca comes out to meet him, learns the orb's story, and asks if she can have it.