Douglas Green's feature directorial debut, based on Mitch Giannunzio's play A Smaller Place, stars Kim Hunter as Murial, a home-bound senior frequently tended to by her just under 50-year-old son Jack (Timothy Bottoms.) She's beginning to mention her deceased husband as if he were still alive, and she frequently acts as if Jack is a young man who wants to date her.
Distressed, Jack is forced to admit her to a nursing home, something his wife Holy (Kim Greist) has wanted all along, and as he prepares to ship Muriel and her belongings away, he's forced to face painful truths about his childhood and how it might have affected his adult life.