随着伊朗伊斯兰共和国掌权，道德警察在德黑兰随意展开突袭，原教旨主义者掌控了各所大学，纳菲西客厅里那些权利被逐步剥夺的女性，不顾一切地寻找一个安全的空间，好摘下头巾，畅所欲言。尽管身处巨大危险之中，当她们的故事与正在阅读的小说——《洛丽塔》《了不起的盖茨比》《黛西·米勒》和《傲慢与偏见》——交织在一起时，她们找到了希望；在这里，她们谈论自己的梦想，思忖着实现自由的唯一途径是否就是离开这个她们依然热爱的家园。

故事发生于1946年，战争结束了，伊万（约翰·萨维奇 John Savage 饰）从德军战俘营里得到了释放，返回家乡，这里的一切都改变了。伊万一直惦记着他的初恋情人玛利亚（娜塔莎·金斯基 Nastassja Kinski 饰），可此时的玛利亚已经有了男友埃尔（文森特·斯帕诺 Vincent Spano 饰）。伊万并不怪玛利亚，他只是感到难过。
某天夜里，伊万约玛利亚出来，两人终于解开了心结互诉衷肠，之后，玛利亚甩了埃尔，同伊万携手步入了婚姻的殿堂。战争创伤后遗症令伊万无法和玛利亚做爱，这让这对新婚燕尔的小夫妻感到无比郁闷，奇怪的是，当伊万来到瓦伊尼奇夫人（Anita Morris 饰）的床上时，他却又可以了。

New York pretentious Diana Sullivan is writing a series of articles on the theme of "family" for Cosmopolitan magazine. Primarily to keep an eye on her but also because of the personal connection, Diana invites her mid-teen daughter, Grace Sullivan, to accompany her on a trip to research the next in the series, dealing with their own family, most specifically a wing that lives deep in the backwaters of the Louisiana bayou, which has been largely overtaken by oil companies of late. They are most directly connected by brothers: Diana's grandfather Mike, and Joe, the patriarch of the Louisiana wing. Diana and Grace have never met their Louisiana relations, they in turn who do not even know that Diana and Grace exist. As difficult as it becomes, Diana and Grace are able to meet their Louisiana relations, led by Joe's widowed young wife, Ruth Sullivan, who acts as if Joe is still with them, who sees anything related to the city as suspect, and who rules her household with an iron fist to ...