This is the dramatic story of the family of famous children's books author Ted Cole (Bridges), living in the East Hamptons in 1958, coping with the recent deaths of two teenage sons in a freak car accident. Hoping to inspire his wife, Marion (Basinger), to divorce him, Ted hires a personal assistant (Foster) who is a dead ringer for one of the boys, with Marion soon having an affair with the teenager that borders on incestuous. Meanwhile, this strange couple still has a remaining child, four-year-old daughter Ruth (Fanning).