It's the 1970s in the deep south of the USA, and Fay McKelva is shaking her aged husband because he just will not make an effort to get out of his hospital bed and get well. She is outraged when he dies from the sudden interference with his blood pressure, but she's also quite pleased because she can now sell that awful house in Mount Salus, Mississippi, and go off and do something with her life. Her step-daughter Laurel brings her father home for his funeral, and wanders about her childhood home not quite believing that she can't stop it being sold by the selfish widow. Secrets emerge, Texas invades, and Fay flings herself publicly onto her husband's coffin in funeral drama. For those who prefer their comportment to be southern, rather than Texan.