A young college graduate returns to her family home and must reconcile intellectual ambitions with everyday domestic expectations. Episodic scenes portray reunions with friends, attempts to apply philosophical ideas to practical problems, encounters with eccentric neighbors and social tensions, and small-scale philanthropic efforts. Gentle humor and moments of conflict reveal misunderstandings, loyalty, and responsibility, and the heroine gradually adjusts her sense of purpose as theory and practice come into alignment and family and community relationships are repaired.