Sharon, pregnant with her first child, realizes she can't start a family of her own until she confronts and mends the dysfunctional family she left behind in Buffalo, New York. Mom is enraged about the most recent pregnancy of her other daughter, Karen, the black sheep of the family. Mom can't understand Karen's choices: Why have a third child, fathered by a drug dealer, on top of a terminally ill second child? The family unit is in crisis. No one shares the same values and cultures clash-Jew and gentile, black and white, middle class and welfare class. But mother and daughters are more alike than they realize. They may not like each other, but they do love one another. Scenes from everyday life-just surviving, nagging, coping, bills, and doctor's appointments-give the film true intimacy.