While in her deathbed, Ann Lord repeats the name "Harris" and recalls the day in the 50's when she was an aspirant singer and traveled from New York to be the maid of honor of her wealthy friend Lila Wittenborn's wedding in Newport. Ann Grant is welcomed by Lila's alcoholic and reckless brother Buddy in the Wittenborn's cottage at seaside and he tells her that his sister is in love with their friend and servant Harris Arden, who fought in the war and has graduated in medicine. Later the bride-to-be confesses her true feelings about Harris to Ann. However, when Ann meets Harris, she has a crush on him and they have a brief affair. Meanwhile Ann's daughters, the insecure and unstable Nina Mars and the happy wife and mother Constance Haverford, are worried with their mother and have differences to be resolved.

According to The Hollywood Reporter (9/14/06): "director Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation (2003)) had been in preliminary discussions to direct, and Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn was discussed for the lead role, but those deals never developed."

[from trailer]


Lila Wittenborn:
Your mother had her whole life. She sang at my wedding... she raised two girls... we can't know everything she did. We are mysterious creatures, aren't we?

Revealing mistakes: In every scene where Ann is on her death bed, IV poles can be seen in the background. The liquid in the IV bags, however, are never dripping. IV solution has to drip from the bottom of the bag into the IV tube in order to enter the patient. These bags are just hanging there doing nothing.

Written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne
Arranged by Andy Farber
Performed by Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson and Andy Farber & His Swing Mavens