This is the poignant story of the dilemma Elizabeth Swenson faces when her father dies and her aged mother, Edna Mae threatens to end her life with a doctor's assistance if she is forced to go to a rest home. At first Elizabeth holds out, unwilling to accept euthanasia, but when her fiance is suddenly transferred from California to Boston, she is faced with accepting her mother's plan to commit suicide, or continue to care for her in the family home, putting aside her own plans for a happy marriage with the man she loves. The two women ride a roller caster of emotions, bound by blood but pulled apart by young Elizabeth's hopes of starting a new life, and her mother's determination to end hers.