Seven Plates at the Table

Greta thinks she has everything to be thankful for this November. She and her husband George have a good marriage, and she’s looking forward to spending more time with him in a few years, when he retires from his electrical business. Greta’s dedicated her life to her family, and just this once she’s determined to have a Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving. Her only obstacles are her two grown children.

Greta doesn’t know how she produced two such dissimilar personalities. Alan, the oldest, is a financial analyst living in a big house in a pricey Boston suburb, with his remote wife Isabel and their adorable five-year-old, Henry. Greta and George get called for plenty of babysitting, but they almost never see Alan. And Greta’s not sure Henry sees much of his father either. What could her son find more important than his family?

And Emily went from computer sales to goat farming, a switch Greta is trying to understand. But Emily is tending her demanding animals and living a monastic life in a small farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. How is she ever going to meet someone if she can’t leave her goats?

Emily thinks Alan is a self-indulgent bore and Alan thinks Emily is a clueless idealist, opinions that disrupt every family gathering. The only person who seems happy when they’re all together is little Henry. So this Thanksgiving, Greta has spoken to everyone ahead of time about the kind of holiday she expects. But their family get-together doesn’t go the way she wants, and their next year isn’t going to go according to plan either. When Greta starts digging under the surface, she discovers illness, addiction, and depression, but also unexpected talents, new relationships, and pathways to reconciliation. The next Thanksgiving they face is going to be radically different.