Plot

The enduring friendship between the Walling and Ostroff families is tested when Nina, the prodigal Ostroff daughter, returns home for the holidays after a five-year absence and enters into an affair with David, head of the Walling family.

In conservative West Orange, New Jersey, the Ostroff and Walling families are very close. David Walling and Terry Ostroff are inseparable best friends and run together every day. David has problems with his wife Paige and frequently sleeps alone in his office. Their daughter Vanessa is frustrated because she has not succeeded in her career as a designer. Their son Toby is moving to China on a temporary assignment. Terry's wife Cathy ignores him; their daughter Nina moved to San Francisco five years ago. Near Thanksgiving, Nina's boyfriend Ethan betrays her at his birthday party and Nina returns to her parents' house. Nina argues with her mother and draws closer to David. Soon they have an affair and fall in love, turning the lives of the people close to them upside-down.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Married couples David and Paige Walling and Terry and Cathy Ostroff are longtime "neighbors across the street" in suburban West Orange, New Jersey, and best friends who do everything together. They both outwardly present that their marriages are perfect, but David copes by hiding from Paige and her little pet projects (like her Christmas carolers who start rehearsing in the summer) in his man cave; and controlling Cathy only pretends to listen to Terry while he rambles on, especially about his many gadgets. Of their combined three now-young-adult offspring, only 24-year-old design-school grad Vanessa Walling still lives at home, working on her portfolio before getting a designing job and apartment in the city. Vanessa and the Ostroffs' only offspring, 24-year-old Nina, were best friends while growing up, but Vanessa now thinks Nina is a self-absorbed bitch. Nina left home supposedly for good five years ago to travel the world, and currently lives in San Francisco with her new fiance', artist Ethan, which doesn't sit well with Cathy. With no plan beyond the actually holiday day, Nina unexpectedly comes home for Thanksgiving, having just broken up with unfaithful Ethan. Cathy senses an opportunity as the Wallings' son Toby, who works for the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, is also coming home for Thanksgiving. Cathy would love to see her only daughter marry her best friends' son--but quite another relationship develops between the two families over the holidays. When this relationship comes to light, it causes an upheaval in both families, but it also makes each Walling and Ostroff truly and critically evaluate whether they are happy, whether happiness as an end justifies any means, and whether those means should be viewed under the lens of social norms.—Huggo