New York, the 1970s: Frannie D'Amato, activist, young artist, and unashamed truth teller, wants to awaken her disabled mother, Vera, from her 1950s housewife slumber and rescue her from physical neglect; to call to account Anthony, her arrogant physician father; and to convince indifferent onlookers about the urgency of her struggle and, if possible, to save her own neck.