Act One is 1958 Great Neck, Long Island. In this deep enclave of Jewish families, a French nanny uses the absence of parents on vacation to convert two teenage daughters to Catholicism. The mom returns to discover in horror a makeshift chapel in their living room, with the nanny usurper Clementine saying Mass. The four women battle for power of influence, independence of offspring, the meaning of Jesus as power and/or love, and family jealousies explode. Act Two is a 1968 Rhode Island reunion a decade later, with nanny Clementine as outcast, older daughter as fanatic evangelist and her musician sister joining with mom to protect a rebel son who has crashed the reunion. His coming out as gay challenges their fragile beliefs, exposes destructive morality and threatens to tear apart the illusions of family.