The patriarch of an enormous Catholic family turns 88 with children & grandchildren celebrating him. Details of a family still intact just prior to the family's demise are captured through the lens of one child, returning after years of absence. "Here, as long as the rules were obeyed, the world was kept at bay. 'Say grace, stack the dishes, don't forget to say 'Eternal Rest''.' As if we were still children, as if we, too, were safe from life's inevitability, and the universe still in its rightful order. . ."