Renowned actress Colleen West abandons her successful career for a secluded life in the hills. But the peace and quiet she longed for is disrupted by the noisy construction of neighboring housing developments. Before long, Colleen discovers that she can’t stand herself now that she has given up the only thing she has ever truly been passionate about. As an alternative to isolation, she reluctantly befriends her jubilant, whimsical neighbor and reconnects with her estranged brother. Haunted by loneliness and past desires, Colleen begins to feel as if her life was lived through the characters she has played on stage and screen.

Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.