While in her deathbed, Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) repeats the name "Harris" and recalls the day in the 50's when she was an aspirant singer and traveled from New York to be the maid of honor of her wealthy friend Lila Wittenborn's (Mamie Gummer) wedding in Newport. Ann Grant (Claire Danes) is welcomed by Lila's alcoholic and reckless brother Buddy in the Wittenborn's cottage at seaside and he tells her that his sister is in love with their friend and servant Harris Arden, who fought in the war and has graduated in medicine. Later the bride-to-be confesses her true feelings about Harris to Ann. However, when Ann meets Harris, she has a crush on him and they have a brief affair. Meanwhile Ann's daughters, the insecure and unstable Nina Mars and the happy wife and mother Constance Haverford, are worried with their mother and have differences to be resolved.