75-year-old Dr. Nathaniel Shellner has led an extraordinary life as a psychiatrist, working with traumatized patients fleeing war zones in refugee camps, earning himself a Nobel Prize for his work. After having one child, Leonard, with his wife, Lillian, the Shellners elect to adopt the remainder of their family from the camps where Dr. Shellner worked. Ultimately, the Shellners incorporated three children from all over the world into their family – Tommy, Julie, and Harry. As Dr. Shellner lies on his death bed on a frigid, icy day on the fringes of New York City in suburban New Jersey, the family convenes at the house where the couple raised the children for a final, bittersweet farewell to a sensational and inspiring public figure. Or, that's the idea, until all hell breaks loose after Tommy arrives and accuses his father of adopting his children, not out of concern for their future well-being, but to use them for some warped psychological experiment.
The proceedings from Tommy's accusation forward during the remainder of the evening offer a cocktail of incidents between the family members own interpersonal issues and a relentless exploration of the clues Tommy manufactures as evidence of his father's alleged wrongdoing. The allegations not only stun the family, they stir up anger and resentment, not only because of Dr. Shellner's failing health, but also because he has been held up as a paragon of selflessness and virtue not only within the family but from all his public recognition and numerous awards he was festooned with. As Tommy relentlessly pursues his own 'evidence' of his father's ostensible experiments with his children's minds and feelings, he simultaneously stirs up a whole load of simmering resentments, shifting alliances, and old traumas form the family's internal relations and dynamics.
