After 15 years in Philadelphia, Ruth has built up a business successful enough to bring her home to Derry, Ireland. But instead of the welcome she longed for, her arrival provokes instant strife. Her widowed mother is being driven to distraction by her own widowed mother, Doddie, who is convinced that Ruth is Doddie's sister--a woman who got pregnant and eloped with a G.I., only to be abandoned in Liverpool.