Ruby and her husband Claude are a working-class couple who live in suburban Arkansas. As crazy as they are for each other, their relationship is far from harmonious. (The lack of money doesn't help matters, either.) In fact, their whole family is fraught with unresolved conflicts. Then Claude's uncle is arrested on a felony charge, and everyone rallies round. Ruby's mother Jewel and flirtatious sister Rose (Claude's ex-girlfriend) even fly in from Tennessee; but, far from being a source of support, Jewel seems only to want to break up Ruby and Claude.

When a married couple become separated in the park, a tramp sits with the lady and is beat up when her husband rejoins her. He takes a room in their hotel, and chaos ensues.

A successful New York architect with a beautiful wife and an adoring young son is forced to reevaluate his outwardly idyllic life after a chance meeting with an urban designer reveals the cracks in the foundation of his paradise.