 Flashbacks to her childhood show her responding to her repressed upbringing by beginning an affair with one of her father's subordinates, a married railroad signals worker.The middle son, Chip, is an unemployed academic living in New York City following his termination as a tenure-track university professor due to a sexual relationship with a student.Living on borrowed money from Denise, Chip works obsessively on a screenplay, but finds no success or motivation to pay off his debts.