Cosmopolitan and long absent son George returns, with English art-dealer wife Madeline in tow, to visit his roots, a dysfunctional conservative small-town family in bible-belt North Carolina. This is the sort of place where children grow up with 'something wrong about them', which begs a few questions about religion, education, basic medical services and inward breeding, but the director has carefully crafted a nuanced set of characters whose interactions are at the heart of the film. As a sideplot there is a totally bananas local artist whom Madeline is trying to sign for her Chicago gallery. Interesting, but you kinda get the idea that George did the right thing by getting the hell out of there.