Twenty-five years later, the day before Thanksgiving 2015, Maggie and her girlfriend, Isabel, drive from Vermont to Port Haven. Maggie worries about a Monday meeting with Headmaster Cunningham, the principal of the school where she teaches English. She is afraid that the impending meeting may be about her recent encounter with her ex-girlfriend Sarah Thompson in Boston, Massachusetts. Sarah is the mother of a pupil in Maggie’s class named Oliver, and her husband, Frank, is a board member. Since faculty-parent relationships are unprofessional, the discovery of the affair may jeopardize Maggie’s career.

Maggie is also concerned about her mother potential reaction to Isabel; Nora has never accepted Maggie’s sexuality. To distract the preoccupied Maggie, Isabel suggests a game in which Maggie is to describe each of her family members in one word. Maggie describes Cait as “fiery”; Alice as a “mom”; their mother as “opaque”; and their father, Robert Ryan, as “obliging.”

In a flashback, Maggie recalls interviewing Isabel last winter for a writer-in-residence position at Grove Academy, the school at which Maggie teaches. Sarah had cautioned against hiring an openly gay writer. Shortly afterward, Sarah ended their affair to stay with Frank. Maggie had spent months devastated.

When Maggie met Isabel at a welcome reading, she was immediately attracted to her. They ran together daily and grew close. On Maggie’s 34th birthday, Isabel brought her a cupcake, and they kissed. They spent every night together until the previous Friday, when Maggie visited Sarah in Boston for what she claims to herself was an attempt to seek closure. However, Sarah tried to kiss Maggie, so Maggie has not disclosed the meeting to Isabel.

Days before Thanksgiving, Maggie impulsively invited Isabel home. In the present, Isabel notices Topher’s mala beads and asks what word describes him. Maggie answers with “liar.”

Cait is on a flight from London to New York with her five-year-old twins, Poppy and Augustus. She is overwhelmed because of many reasons: her recent divorce from her husband, Bram, and her decision to quit her law firm after being passed over for as a partner despite bringing in the most clients. Shortly after she quit her job, she sent a condolence email to Luke, who had recently lost his mother. Since then, communication has reopened between Luke and Cait, igniting Cait’s hope for a renewed romance with her childhood love.

In the present, Cait attempts to read an email from Luke, but the Wi-Fi is down. Poppy is disruptive since their nanny, Ruthie, forgot to pack her stuffed elephant. To make matters worse, Poppy drops Cait’s phone in the toilet, ruining the device and leaving Cait unable to communicate with Luke.

Cait recalls how Luke had emailed her in September that he would be visiting London for work. They met for martinis, and Luke mentioned a work obligation when Cait hinted at more. Before leaving, Luke asked Cait if she would be at the Folly, her family’s home, for Thanksgiving. He planned to be in Port Haven around the time to clear his mother’s house. Days later, Cait booked tickets home.

On Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving, Alice struggles with her to-do list when her mother calls about caterers arriving early. After finding her son Finn’s missing basketball jersey, she discovers her husband, Kyle Williams, repairing their younger son James’s bike instead of helping with preparations. Though Alice recently started an interior-design business, she doesn’t feel like she earns enough to request more household help from her husband.

At the Folly, her father dismisses Alice’s concerns about the house’s deteriorating shingles. The caterer, Beth, hired for Thanksgiving, raises Alice’s hackles with the reveal that Cait ordered an oyster bar and other items totaling nearly $5,000. Alice must also bake all the pies, including a vegan version for Cait. The goose droppings outside make Alice feel nauseated.

While driving to meet her biggest client, Georgia Hickey, and the project’s architect, David, nausea forces Alice to pull over. The architect has left by the time she arrives. At a stoplight, she spots a pornographic magazine in James’s duffel bag; after James says that Kyle was the last to use it, she grows angry at her husband. She drives to Saint Mary’s gymnasium during halftime of Finn’s game and confronts Kyle, who denies ownership. Both realize that the magazine belongs to Finn when they see his dread-filled expression. Alice’s stomach lurches, and she vomits violently.

Maggie and Isabel arrive at the Folly. Nora welcomes Isabel formally and accepts the sunflowers she has bought. Robert greets Isabel warmly, putting Maggie at ease. In Maggie’s bedroom, Isabel tells her that the meeting with the Ryans went well. While looking at the lighthouse, Isabel mentions Topher’s drawing of it in Maggie’s office.

The mention of the lighthouse triggers a detailed flashback to when Maggie was 20 years old and home from college at Wellesley. Topher, who was living at the Folly at the time, was supposed to pick up Maggie after her wisdom-teeth extraction at the dental clinic. When Topher failed to appear, Maggie took a taxi home, the pain making her angry at being abandoned by her brother. She found the house empty and a note taped to Topher’s locked bedroom door instructing her not to enter and to call Father Kelly, the family priest. Queasy at the unusual tone of the note, Maggie picked the lock and entered the room.

Inside, Maggie found a small den door off Topher’s room ajar and discovered him hanging from a beam in the den. Unable to lift him or untie the knot, she frantically tried to help before calling emergency services. An emergency medical technician (EMT) arrived and escorted Maggie from the room. She overheard the EMT say that Topher’s body was still warm. To this day, she cannot understand why Topher chose for Maggie to find him.

In the present, Nora knocks on their door and informs them that Isabel will sleep in the guest cottage. Maggie is furious at Isabel being assigned a separate room, but Isabel calms her. Then, Maggie receives a text from Sarah asking to talk.

Alice takes a pregnancy test at a gas station on the way back from Finn’s game and is devastated when it turns positive. She reflects that a third child would obliterate her burgeoning career.

Alice remembers meeting Kyle in her early twenties. She admired his discipline and his Christian faith. She started attending Mass with him, finding a sense of comfort in the collective worship. She and Kyle married when she was 25, and she quickly became pregnant with Finn. In the present, Alice reflects that she embraced motherhood eagerly then, but as she’s approached 40, an unplanned pregnancy has never been in her plans.

Returning to the Folly, Alice disposes of the test in an outdoor trash bin and spots a raccoon. Inside, James greets her with complaints, and her father asks about dinner.

Cait arrives at the Folly with her twins. Her father brandishes a shotgun, claiming to hunt raccoons. Inside, Cait meets Isabel for the first time. After Isabel describes the current play on which she is working, based on Eleanor Roosevelt, Cait volunteers to pick up pizza for dinner, planning to visit Luke enroute. She changes into lingerie and a flattering outfit. However, Cait’s plans seem to be stymied when Maggie and Poppy insist on joining her.

At the pizzeria, Cait borrows Maggie’s phone to check her email. Luke’s message says that he may spend Thanksgiving in the city. Cait tries calling the Larkin house but reaches only an answering machine. While driving back, Cait directs Maggie to the Larkin house and honks. When Luke emerges looking sad, Cait impulsively invites him to Thanksgiving. He accepts, and Maggie is furious.

Cait recalls her history with Luke. When she was 17, she stayed back at the beach club with 18-year-old Luke after a storm. They smoked marijuana and went to his house, where they had sex—Cait’s first time. Afterward, they danced to the Footloose soundtrack. While walking Cait home, Luke warned her that Topher was dealing drugs with Marcus, a local dealer whom Topher recently befriended, to fund his boat.

In the present, Cait reveals to her family that she has invited Luke to dinner. The room falls silent, and Alice is enraged. After dinner, Cait bathes the twins and then falls asleep with them, relieved to escape the tension.

That same evening, Alice bakes pies while Nora writes place cards, including one for Luke. Alice realizes that she forgot Cait’s dairy-free apple pie and agrees to make another in the morning. She remains furious about Luke’s invitation.

Alice recalls an incident when she and Maggie hid on the stairs as their parents met with the family lawyer, Mr. Powers, about the Larkins’ wrongful-death lawsuit. Beyond monetary settlement, the Larkins demanded that Topher accept written legal responsibility for Daniel’s death. Nora objected, but Robert agreed to end the ordeal. Nora laughed bitterly, declaring that it would never truly be over.

Alice now asks Nora if her mother is comfortable with Luke coming over for dinner, but Nora deflects the question. Upstairs, Finn tearfully confesses to Alice that Kyle told him it was his actions that made Alice sick. Alice reassures Finn. In their bedroom, Kyle confronts Alice about bringing the magazine to Finn’s school, undermining his authority. He reveals that Finn stole it from a friend and will be grounded. Alice argues that they should talk to Finn rather than just punish him, but Kyle accuses her of being too lenient. In bed, Alice resents how little a new baby would change Kyle’s life compared to destroying her own dreams.