When sixty-three-year-old Alma, a failure at all she undertakes, decides to run away from her controlling and impatient husband, the result, like most of her efforts, is a disaster. She ends up in rehab in Glen Willow Gardens nursing home among the other "inmates" who mostly suffer from some form of dementia.As Alma recovers from both an accident and a subsequent stroke, her kindness and humor lead her to enjoy unfamiliar successes in caring for herself and others. She also finds friendship with a lonely gardener and with the man who was responsible for her accident. When it is time to choose her path into the future, she leaves Glen Willow Gardens a stronger, more independent woman