In a flashback to 2011, a post-college April works as a tutor for Jonathan Gutierrez, a high school student with dyslexia. At the school, she has a brief, friendly encounter with a teacher named Leo Torres. During her session with Jonathan, he expresses his hope to be in Mr. Torres’s history class. Later, April runs into Leo again and realizes from his name badge that he’s the teacher Jonathan admires. Leo confirms that Jonathan will be in his class.

On another day, April and Leo have a long conversation about their shared passion for education and students. He asks her out to dinner, and this time, there’s a romantic spark. Later, April thinks about Leo while sitting by the pool with her sister, Josie.

April wakes in her childhood bedroom to the smell of smoke on her clothes. Downstairs, she joins her mother and a silent Leo for breakfast. The tension between them is heavy. They’re soon joined by Josie, Billy, and her brother, Cameron. Leo receives a call from the fire department confirming that it’s safe to reenter their house. He and April agree to go assess the damage. Before they leave, Josie breaks the somber mood by teasing Leo about his mismatched outfit—an old T-shirt and American flag swim trunks. April borrows clothes from Josie and boots from her father, and she and Leo drive to their ruined home in silence.

In 2013, Leo drives to the home of April’s parents to ask for their blessing to marry her. He reflects on his love for April, which began when he witnessed her dedicated work with her student Jonathan. Though intimidated by her family’s wealth, he has grown to love them. Deb and Billy are thrilled and give their enthusiastic consent. When they ask if he needs anything, he confesses that he’s short on funds for a down payment on a house. They immediately offer to give him the money as a wedding gift, making him feel like a true son. He tells them that he plans to propose by hiding a ring inside a book of Ada Limón’s poetry.

Leo and April arrive at their house to find the kitchen roof caved in. The sight and smell of the destruction overwhelm Leo, and he vomits. Inside, everything is a mess of water, smoke, and mildew. In what was the kitchen, he finds a drawing by Sadie with the word “FAMLEE.” The memory of asking April for a divorce in that same spot returns, followed by her asking if he still wants one now. He deflects her question. A text from a coworker links him to a news article about the fire that refers to “his wife, April” and “their two children” (27), which deeply affects him. Just then, April finds Sadie’s teddy bear, Bear Bear, miraculously intact, and the relief is immense.

In 2013, a newly engaged April and Leo work on the house they just bought. They playfully argue over the color of paint for the shutters, an exchange that turns into a romantic, paint-smeared encounter. Days later, April gets a panicked call from her former student Jonathan, who says that another boy, Dom, has threatened him with a knife. Leo calls 911, and they find that the police have already intervened. Jonathan, who’s struggling to find a job, is released. Leo buys him food and tries to connect him with a job in pest control, but Jonathan lacks transportation. On the drive home, April and Leo argue; she feels that Jonathan deserves a better job, and Leo accuses her of having a savior complex and being naïve of class realities.

The evening before the fire, Deb welcomes Josie home for a visit. During dinner with Billy, the parents are evasive when Josie asks about April and Leo, hinting at marital tension. Deb and Josie argue when Deb pressures her about settling down, with Josie passionately defending her career in theater. Deb notices that Billy is uncharacteristically forgetful, a detail that worries her. At two o’clock in the morning, a frantic April calls about the house fire. After texting Leo to invite the family to stay, Deb reflects on her private worry about Billy’s health. She directs her family to their rooms when they arrive and begins preparing food for the morning.

Deb and Billy watch the children while April and Leo inspect their house. Sadie is distraught over losing her teddy bear, and Billy gently suggests that they hold a funeral for him. When April and Leo return, they bring the salvaged, smoke-damaged bear, to Sadie’s delight. Later, the family gathers for a barbecue, but the large flames on the grill trigger a terrified reaction from Sadie, who screams inconsolably. After she’s finally calmed, a shaken Leo retreats into the house alone. Just then, Cameron arrives with his new girlfriend, Rachel. Deb, who had forgotten they were coming, puts on a brave face as she observes the tense family tableau: a smitten Cameron, a scowling Leo, and a distant April twisting her wedding ring.

Deeply disturbed by Sadie’s traumatic reaction to the grill fire, Leo goes inside. April finds him, and he admits his terror from the night of the fire, confessing that he thought they were all going to die. Looking out at the Russo family in the yard, he feels a surge of impatience and tells April that staying there and pretending their marriage isn’t over isn’t working. At dinner, Leo feels like an outsider, recalling the sense of belonging he once felt in this home. He observes his brother-in-law’s new girlfriend, Rachel, and concludes that she shares the Russos’ privileged background, which is so different from his own. The feeling of being part of their family is gone, leaving him feeling isolated again.

In 2013, at April’s urging, Leo calls his estranged aunt and uncle, Izzy and Nacho, to invite them to the wedding. He refuses to contact his parents, who abandoned him as a child. Later, at the Russo house, Leo finds Josie upset about not getting the role of Sandy in a production of Grease. While April is dismissive, Leo leads the family in a sing-along to cheer Josie up, cementing his place in the family. His aunt and uncle don’t attend the wedding. Weeks later, they send a cheap card with a cold note referencing his “wild days.” Leo remembers his difficult teen years living with them as an unwanted “burden.” Not wanting to share this pain, he lets April believe that the card was a kind gesture.

After dinner, April realizes that Rachel will sleep on the couch, meaning that Leo will sleep in bed with her. In her old bedroom, April is overcome with longing and curls up against Leo. Realizing that he no longer belongs to her, she pulls away, ashamed. Leo then turns to her and asks, his voice full of emotion, why she saved his self-published novel, Seventh City, from the fire. Moved by his vulnerability, she kisses him. He weakly resists until she whispers that it can be a “swan song,” at which point he jerks away. She understands that he’s thinking of her affair with a man named Cody. They lie in silence, and in the morning, Leo is gone.

In a brief flashback to 2014, a few months into their marriage, April and Leo are settling into their new house. They spend a happy, normal evening going to a bookstore to find a book for one of April’s tutoring students and to give Leo time to write. As they leave the house, Leo nearly forgets a lit candle, and April jokes with him not to burn the place down. The memory is of a simple, content moment in their shared domestic life.

While making breakfast, Deb reflects on her lifelong role as a caretaker, which began at 17 when her mother fell ill. Her thoughts are interrupted when Billy sees Sadie and mistakes her for a young Josie. April witnesses the confused exchange. To cover, Deb quickly tells Billy that she cut “Jo’s” hair. Once they’re alone, April confronts her, and Deb confesses that Billy was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s the previous week. Later, April asks if Billy’s mother also had the disease, and Deb confirms that they believe it’s genetic.

A flashback to 1988 reveals that Deb and Billy had a shotgun wedding after she became pregnant with April. Their marriage was initially a loveless, tense arrangement. They fought constantly, particularly over parenting choices. Deb found her only comfort in April and resolved to stay married for her daughter’s sake. Over time, watching Billy’s steadfast devotion to April softened Deb’s feelings. One night, after witnessing a tender moment between father and daughter, Deb impulsively told Billy that she loved him. He reciprocated immediately. Their relationship transformed, and they fell deeply in love, later having Josie and Cameron and building a happy life in their house on Lexington Avenue.

April arrives at the house to find Leo already clearing debris. Annoyed by his dismissive attitude, she begins working as well. Her anger grows until she confronts him for discarding their memories. He claims that she isn’t who he thought she was. After an insurance adjuster’s visit, April insists that they hire a cleanup crew, but Leo resists. He stalks off to the creek on their property. April follows and watches him wade into the dirty water. He challenges her to join him, so she strips to her underwear and gets in. The raw moment is broken by the memory of her infidelity, and she gets out and drives away, leaving him standing in the creek.

In 2017, April suggests a vacation to Mexico, but Leo resists visiting the homeland of the parents who abandoned him. They compromise on South Padre Island, where Leo sees the ocean for the first time and is deeply moved. The trip is idyllic and romantic. On their last night, Leo tells April that he wants to have a baby. He explains that while he never wanted children because of his own traumatic childhood, he wants to have her children. April is overjoyed and agrees. He feels a deep sense of belonging with her, and a few months later, they learn that she’s pregnant.

In a flashback to 1988 Odessa, Texas, a four-year-old Leo lives in a trailer with his parents, Ana and Rico. Ana is pregnant, and the family has no food. Rico goes out to find some, but when he doesn’t return, a desperately hungry Ana leaves the sleeping Leonardo alone to go get food herself. Leonardo wakes up alone and terrified during a thunderstorm. When his parents finally return, his mother’s belly is flat; she has lost the baby. Ana sinks into a deep depression. Her despair culminates in a phone call to her brother, Nacho, in which she says that she can’t continue.

The Russo house is in chaos. Cameron announces that he and Rachel are engaged. Deb reacts poorly, hurt that he didn’t confide in her and worried that he’s too young. Billy intervenes, giving Cameron a congratulatory hug. After a pointed look from Billy, Deb feels a surge of regret and then offers her own support. Billy leaves to buy champagne to celebrate. As she reflects on Billy’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Deb feels a sudden urgency for the wedding to happen while her husband is still lucid. Over two hours later, the family realizes that Billy hasn’t yet returned from the store.

In 2018, shortly before Sadie is born, Leo admits to April that he’s scared of being a father. She reassures him. However, three months after Sadie’s C-section birth, April is struggling with postpartum depression. She feels isolated and disconnected from her body. Meanwhile, Leo’s career is thriving—his self-published novel gains popularity among his colleagues, and he’s named teacher of the year. April had previously quit her tutoring job to focus on their family, a decision Leo supported. Now, at home with the baby, she feels her own identity disappearing as Leo’s grows stronger.

Knowing that her father is missing, April goes with Deb to find him, leaving an annoyed Leo with the children. Billy finally answers his phone from Waco, two hours away. On the long drive, April hints to her mother about her marital problems. They find Billy at a closed hardware store; a kind manager named Ricardo had stayed with him. Billy bought hammers instead of champagne. On the drive home, April apologizes to Leo in Spanish. He reacts angrily, accusing her of using his family’s language to try to fix things. During their tense, whispered argument, he brings up the day he walked in on her and Cody, but April cuts him off, calling his fixation on that one moment a “bluff.” After Leo walks away, April discovers an email on her phone from a lawyer he contacted, confirming that he’s proceeding with the divorce.

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Leo defies April’s wishes and goes to his empty school for teaching materials. He feels guilty and apologizes upon his return. During the lockdown, April grows increasingly depressed and withdrawn. Feeling like a burden, Leo gives her space by retreating into his work teaching via Zoom. When school reopens in the fall, he pours all his energy into his job and tutoring, finding a sense of purpose there that’s missing at home.

Deb and Billy sit together in their backyard. She feels the weight of his diagnosis and the anticipatory grief of becoming his caretaker. She tells him that they must inform their other children the next day, and he agrees. She’s relieved that he’s lucid and that they’re facing this together. Seeking to connect with him while he’s still fully himself, she leads him to the bedroom, where they make love. As they do, she cries freely, and he kisses her tears.

Later in 2020, April contracts COVID-19 and isolates in her bedroom. After a week, her condition suddenly deteriorates; she develops a high fever, a severe headache, and dangerously low oxygen levels. Finding her unresponsive, Leo breaks quarantine to care for her, getting a steroid prescription from her doctor and nursing her through the crisis. She recovers, and neither Leo nor Sadie gets sick. A month later, feeling a renewed appreciation for her body’s strength, April initiates intimacy with Leo. A few weeks after that, she tells him that she’s pregnant again.

In the middle of the night, Leo wakes from a nightmare on the Russos’ couch. He picks up his novel, Seventh City, and discovers for the first time that April filled its margins with loving, insightful notes about the story and its connection to him. He’s stunned by this tangible proof of her love, which he thought was gone. His conflicted feelings are interrupted by a crash from the kitchen. He finds Billy, confused and frightened, having broken a bowl. Billy seems disoriented and refers to Leo as a stranger. When April appears, Leo confirms her father’s confusion. He pulls her into a comforting hug, but the memory of her affair makes him pull away.

After Otto’s birth via C-section in 2021, April’s postpartum depression returns with greater intensity. She feels isolated, exhausted, and disconnected from her own body and her family. Leo’s long work hours exacerbate her feelings of being abandoned. She makes a special breakfast to reconnect, but he leaves for the day after filling a travel mug of coffee, saying that he has a lot to do without any further explanation and without noticing her efforts. After this, she gives up on trying to connect with him. Leo eventually arranges for her to return to work part-time as a tutor for a district literacy program run by Cody Blanchard. The new job and her friendship with Cody restore her sense of self. Cody’s admiration and constant presence stand in sharp contrast to Leo’s absence, leading to an affair.

In the weeks following the fire, life at the Russo house adapts to Billy’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The family focuses on planning Cameron and Rachel’s upcoming wedding. Meanwhile, progress on rebuilding April and Leo’s house stalls, forcing them into an unspoken, fragile truce as the topic of their divorce remains unaddressed. The situation becomes complicated when Josie announces that she’s coming home to stay while her show is in Dallas. April knows that her perceptive sister will quickly see through their charade and force a confrontation about why their marriage is ending—a question that April herself still struggles to answer.

The narrative shifts to earlier in 2022. After watching April experience postpartum depression after Otto’s birth, Leo helps her get a tutoring job with a new district literacy coordinator, Cody Blanchard. April thrives in the new role and becomes close friends with Cody. Leo feels jealous of the confident, wealthy man his wife admires. One day, when returning home unexpectedly for lunch, Leo walks in on April in their living room being sexually intimate with Cody. His first thought is that he can’t yell at April because their son is sleeping in the house. Devastated, he leaves without a word. That night, he refuses to speak to April and begins sleeping on the floor of Otto’s room. After weeks of silence, just as summer break begins, he tells April that he wants a divorce. Hours later, their house catches fire.