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Part family drama and part memoir, the author's book spans several generations of the Harding family and its descendants as they experience manifold joys and struggles. The Hardings of Lyme, Connecticut, had eleven children at the turn of the twentieth century: one brother destined to die young and ten sisters who took dramatically different turns in life.
The story gives an account of each family member's life, starting with the youngest sister, Grace, as she deals with an unwelcome pregnancy. Despite Grace's secrecy, her decisions impact the future of the entire Harding family: Grace takes control of her own life, and her attempts to help others by taking control of theirs cause sorrow and strife for years to come. Death and tragedy seem to haunt the family. Still, there are also moments of joy and even subtle humor, such as when Hazel, minutes after being sworn to secrecy about Grace's pregnancy, immediately calls another sister to discuss it. The book also follows the sisters' descendants, ending on Plimpton's memories of the last moments of each of her great aunts' lives.
The first half of the book consists of scenes before Plimpton's lifetime. These chapters are fictionalized, with invented dialogue and some conjecture that does not always fit the more factual, historical tone of the book's second half. In the second half, though, Plimpton expertly describes her own memories of her family. Plimpton's writing is at its strongest in the slice-of-life moments: the descriptions of Helen cooking her boarders' dinner at her Franklin woodstove in the 1930s or treats and pony rides at the small-town 1950s Hamburg fair are as vivid as photographs. In fact, each chapter begins with actual family photographs, which help bring the sisters' stories to life and work alongside the narrative to complete this comprehensive account of an American family.