The story of the Garrett family, Mercy, Robin, and their three children Alice, Lily, and the youngest, David begins on their first family vacation in the summer of 1959 and continues to follow their lives over the decades up to the present day. The children become independent, leave home, and then Mercy begins to fully devote herself to her hobby, painting, and leaves Robin. Their children also experience love and disappointment with their partners. The family grows, they occasionally gather, but their lives still drift apart. The aging David is most fixated on the family, longing for more frequent contact and a united family, and he melancholically compares the tangled fates of its members to a French braid.