Un pueblo desértico de EE. UU. cerca del año 1955, el itinerario de una convención de jóvenes astrónomos y cadetes espaciales (organizada para reunir a estudiantes y padres de todo el país en busca de compañerismo y competencia académica) se ve espectacularmente interrumpido por eventos que cambiarán al mundo.
Durante sus vacaciones, Ned (Bryan Cranston), un padre sobreprotector y su familia visitan a su hija en la Universidad, donde conocerán a su mayor pesadilla: su novio, Laird (James Franco), un multimillonario de Silicon Valley bien intencionado pero socialmente bastante complicado. El conservador Ned, piensa que Laird es la pareja menos apropiada para su hija. La rivalidad unilateral y el nivel de pánico de Ned se disparan cuando descubre además que Laird está a punto de hacerle a su hija “la pregunta”.
Después de casar a su hija Kay con Buckley Dunstan, Stanley Banks se siente libre y feliz. Los días transcurren apaciblemente hasta que se entera de que va a ser abuelo, situación que provocará una gran rivalidad entre su familia y la de su yerno.
Third-generation Florida beekeeper Ulee Jackson may have gotten out of Vietnam alive, but he left a part of himself behind. Now he methodically tends his bees, carefully provides for his two grandchildren and keeps his emotions at bay. But when a long-buried secret threatens Ulee's business and family, he is forced to break through his emotional walls and confront the terror of his wounded spirit.
Life at home changes when a housewife from a middle-class, conservative family in Calcutta gets a job as a salesperson.
An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.
Shoko and Mutsuki get married to satisfy their worried parents, but she is well past the age at which a 'good' Japanese woman should marry, and he is in love with a young male college student. The film is less a realistic exploration of gay life than a fairy tale of three young Japanese trying to construct an alternative to the sexual and familial roles given to them by a society turning increasingly emotionally barren.
Nellie Kelly, the daughter of Irish immigrants, patches up differences between her father and maternal grandfather while rising to the top on Broadway.