Three sisters are summoned back to the family home by their grandmother - who is convinced she is going to die and wants to reveal all the family secrets before she does.

SYNOPSIS:

Sadie thinks she is dying. The three women she raised as her own are not convinced. After all, Sadie is a force of nature; an 80 year old woman who starts every day in a yoga headstand to the music of The Grateful Dead. But when Sadie calls, everyone listens. And call she does; summoning the women back to the family home, a rambling old farm house affectionately called The Brokedown Palace.

Caitlin is pulled away from her hectic legal career - where she represents divorce clients fighting over possession of the riding lawn mower. And away from her ex-husband William who is still making her life miserable with contentious battles and ill-advised bon mots. May gets to leave the ridiculous world of modern art, where art critics simultaneously trash her paintings and try to seduce her. Nellie breaks away from her hectic touring schedule as a rock and roll phenomenon.

Sadie seems in fine health. Once the women are together, they fall into a natural routine; cooking meals together, tending the farm’s horses, dancing to songs from their deceased father's favorite record album - The Grateful Dead's "American Beauty."

As the weekend progresses, there are revelations. Nellie has a serious drinking problem. This becomes clear when the four women go horseback riding. Drunk and riding recklessly, Nellie fails to negotiate a tree and takes a limb to the forehead, knocking her for a loop. This gives Sadie an opportunity to baby her. The evening ends with Sadie singing “To Lay Me Down” to Nellie as a lullaby.

Since Sadie is convinced she is going to die, she wants to put all the secrets of the Brokedown Palace to rest. The girls’ mother left when they were very young, devastating their father. He did the best he could to cope, with Sadie’s help. But he couldn’t cope. The woman have always been told and believed that their father died in an accident in the stable. Sadie finally reveals the truth: Their father hanged himself. She opens his old chest, revealing something he left for each of them. His wedding ring for Caitlin. A bottle of rain for May. His harmonica for Nellie.

After the emotional revelations of the evening, the sisters awake the next morning to silence. This is disquieting because Sadie always plays her music at exactly the same time. Sadie lies peacefully in her bed where she passed away. The sisters agree to follow through with Sadie’s wishes. They bury her in the field, each placing one of their cherished positions with her. They release the horses and set the Brokedown Palace on fire. Then the three sisters drive off with a new sense of family ties and hope rising from the flames behind them.