Five women are outgrowing old roles, tired of (re)-producing to prove their worth. Gemma is an accomplished scholar who researches gender anxieties in Medieval Spain. She is writing about a deaf, Jewish, Spanish nun, a proto-feminist in a culture that saw women as weak and infirmity as a sign of God’s displeasure. Teresa found meaning in her affliction; Gemma sees aging as another kind of affliction.
For Teresa, who shows up in Gemma’s whiskey-soaked dreams, malady is a sign of god’s grace. Gemma has no interest in “God,” but Teresa insists that we use different words to speak about the same thing: belief that life has meaning. But Teresa can’t hear God’s voice anymore. Gemma’s mother is in rehab, recuperating from a broken hip. Illness, age, and friends having died, left Helen without community; now she wants to move a thousand miles away, to live with Gemma’s younger sister Macy. But Macy’s children are becoming adults, and her role as a mother is about to alter. These women offer each other consolation, inspiration, and support in moving on as they scramble to discover what’s next.
For Teresa, who shows up in Gemma’s whiskey-soaked dreams, malady is a sign of god’s grace. Gemma has no interest in “God,” but Teresa insists that we use different words to speak about the same thing: belief that life has meaning. But Teresa can’t hear God’s voice anymore. Gemma’s mother is in rehab, recuperating from a broken hip. Illness, age, and friends having died, left Helen without community; now she wants to move a thousand miles away, to live with Gemma’s younger sister Macy. But Macy’s children are becoming adults, and her role as a mother is about to alter. These women offer each other consolation, inspiration, and support in moving on as they scramble to discover what’s next.