Three daughters fear a mother they don't understand. Despite the longing, deep in their hearts, for her love, for openness and friendship, they fail to become closer to her. They don't understand why she couldn't love all of them. As a prototypical domineering woman, she preferred to select just one girl as a temporary toy, then soon tossed her aside. The daughters also fail to understand their mother's dissatisfaction with her own life. They know nothing of her unfulfilled desires for her career, of her indifference to her husband, of her secret love for a younger man. Then mom falls suddenly and seriously ill. Hearing the news, her girls return to the old family house after many years.