- A bunch of eccentric relatives gather for their patriarch's funeral.
- When Jack Scanlan (Jack Warden) passes away just before telling his son, Johnny (Bob Hoskins) what was really important in life, Johnny begins to wonder if he's let life pass him by. With the funeral as backdrop, all of the Scanlans appear, each with an interesting situation. One of Johnny's sisters is divorced, but hasn't told anyone, the sister, who is a nun, is now into liberation theology and has an illegal immigrant with her, and Tony (Jayce Bartok) is fighting for control of his father's union. Johnny and Terry (Pamela Reed) (the divorced sister) think that they may have found true love in the chaos (though what Johnny's wife thinks of it is up for grabs) as Johnny tries to make some kind of sense out of the various strains in his family.—John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
- Following a recent heart attack, the elderly Jack Scanlan (Jack Warden) returns to work at the Southern New England Transit Workers Union. Along the way, he exclaims that he feels better than ever, and his eldest son, Johnny (Bob Hoskins), asks if he ever had an urge to take a big risk in life. Johnny tells Jack that he is thinking about changing careers, and his father hints about something from his past, but tells Johnny he will answer his question after work. When Jack arrives at his office, another son, Frank (William Petersen), greets him with a surprise party. Jack suffers another heart attack and dies instantly. Frank telephones his brother Johnny, and blames himself for his father's death.
Sometime later, Johnny visits his mother, Mary (Maureen Stapleton), whose home is filled with loved ones. Johnny and Frank are overwhelmed by the details surrounding the wake and funeral, and inform their siblings of their father's death. Their sister, Terry (Pamela Reed), feels bad about her strained relationship with her father. She asks her former husband, Boyd Pinter (Tim Curry), to pretend they are still married and return home with her for the funeral.
Elsewhere, Johnny and his wife, Amy (Blair Brown), tell their teenage children, Sam (Tristin Tait) and Megan (Sarah Rue), about their grandfather's death. When Johnny tells Amy that he wants to sell his business and buy a boat, she dismisses the idea.
As friends and family gather for the wake at Mary's home, Frank's wife, Denise (Deborah Rush), puts her name on several possessions belonging to her mother-in-law, hoping she will inherit them someday. A beautiful woman named Cassie Slocombe (Nancy Travis) arrives, and catches Johnny's attention. She arouses disdain by several elderly relatives, who assume she was Jack's mistress.
Later, Terry arrives with Boyd and, after bidding farewell to her father, who lays in an open casket, she admits to Johnny that she has been divorced for four years. Terry reacquaints with an old friend named Peter Syracusa (Peter Riegert), who works at the funeral home.
Frank is embarrassed when his adult daughter, Rachel (Teri Polo), arrives eight months pregnant, and unwed. Fearing his mother, Mary, will learn the truth, he makes Rachel wear a coat to hide her stomach, and chastises his teenage son, Tony (Jayce Bartok), for sporting an earring. However, Mary is more astute than her family assumes, and asks Rachel about the baby's father. Rachel explains that they are no longer together, but she is excited to be having the baby. When Terry sees Cassie Slocombe at the wake, she comments to Johnny about their father's many mistresses.
Late that night, Johnny goes to the cemetery with Frank and Terry, where he commandeers a bulldozer to carry out their family's tradition of sons digging their fathers' graves. After his siblings leave, Johnny falls in the grave, and is rescued by Cassie Slocombe, who came to see if Johnny would fulfill the tradition.
The next day, he visits Cassie at the hair salon she owns, but she refuses to tell Johnny the exact nature of her relationship with his father.
Sometime later, Terry has lunch with Peter Syracrusa at a local diner, where he asks her to dance to an old song he plays on the jukebox.
Meanwhile, the youngest sister, Nora Scanlan (Frances McDormond), returns home. Nora is a nun who has been working with the poor in El Salvador for the past three years. She has developed communist beliefs, and brought an illegal immigrant back with her named Enrique (Antone DiLeo). When Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officers arrive to search for Enrique, Nora sends the men away.
Elsewhere, Johnny tells Cassie about his plans to buy a boat and leave his wife, claiming his marriage has no passion. As he shops with Cassie at a boutique, he buys her an expensive dress to wear to the funeral.
When Peter Syracrusa figures out that Terry is actually divorced, he chastises her for lying and trying to save face, and accuses her of taking herself too seriously. Terry leaves offended.
Later, Amy Scanlan senses something is wrong with her husband, and asks Johnny about his change in behavior. However, he refuses to discuss the matter.
Back at the wake, Terry bickers with Boyd, and he leaves. She worries how she will tell her mother the truth about her divorce. She insults Peter, then kisses him. When Cassie returns to the wake, Johnny professes his love, and asks her to go away with him, but she dismisses him. Nora Scanlan worries when the INS officers return, and asks Johnny and Cassie for help. They hide Enrique in their father's casket, and move Jack's corpse to an upstairs bedroom. When they enter the room, they discover Terry and Peter, who have just had sex. The frantic group pretends that everything is normal when the INS agents search the room. Nora insists that her father's corpse is a drunken, passed out uncle, and the officers finally leave.
Afterward, Cassie learns that Johnny believes she was his father's mistress, and she leaves in anger. Johnny follows, and she reveals that Jack helped her mother out with a union matter several years ago. Jack also helped the family after her father died when she was nine years old. He remained a lifelong family friend, and gave her money to buy her hair salon.
The next day, at the funeral service, Johnny says a few words about his father. Later, his wife Amy asks him if he slept with Cassie, and he denies her accusation, but remains speechless about whether he is planning to leave their marriage.
On the way to the cemetery, pregnant Rachel is surprised when her former boyfriend, Tom, arrives and professes his love, insisting he is ready to be a father. Meanwhile, Terry finally tells her mother about her divorce, but she already knew. Johnny rides with Cassie in the funeral procession, and she apologizes to him for her anger. She decides not to continue on to the cemetery, and bids Johnny farewell.
At the cemetery, Rachel goes into labor, and apologizes to her judgmental father for the bad timing. However, Frank apologizes for having been so unkind. As Johnny watches his family from afar, he reconciles with Amy, and kisses her. Realizing that he needs to take his father's place as the family patriarch, Johnny takes control of the chaotic situation, and comforts Rachel as they wait for the ambulance to arrive.
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