In the midst of the Great Depression, two families spend a holiday
weekend together--but while their daughters cement their friendship,
their parents tear their marriages apart.
Dozing in the backseat of her father's car, Mary Ann Hubbard is the
happiest eight-year-old in the country. It's 1935, and she and her
parents are going to spend Fourth of July weekend with her headmistress
and the Zimmerns, whose daughter, Lolly, is Mary Ann's best friend from
school. While the two little girls frolic in the attic, endowing the
rambling old house with wonder, creativity, and imagination, their
parents are downstairs, mired in all the pleasure, pain, and occasional
childishness of adulthood.
As an affair threatens to tear the two families apart, Lolly and Mary
Ann retreat further into playtime. By the end of the weekend, the girls
will begin to realize that becoming an adult and growing up can be two
very different things.