A theatrical family hides a big secret. The family’s beloved mother Mary Tyrone (Katharine Hepburn) is a drug addict, driven to that point by her egotistical actor husband James Tyrone (Ralph Richardson) whose days as a leading man have ended. He now has become a skinflint who fails his wife’s medical needs. With two sons at conflict with their father and how to handle the situation, the family seems to disintegrate. The older brother James (Jason Robards, Jr.) may be more fed up with the problem and irresponsible, but young brother Edmund (Dean Stockwell) is too sensitive to fight and may be doomed too by his alcoholism.