Sixty-three year old Minty Whitman has been looking forward to a summer enjoying the freedom of her "friendship with privileges" with the brother of her deceased husband. Instead, her plans are derailed by a series of calamities: her lover's unexpected proposal, a threat to the ancestral home, her married daughter's enthusiasm for the tango, the disappearance of two LaMancha goats and the recurring appearance of her philandering husband's ghost. Within a society tainted by the remnants of antebellum tradition in small town Virginia, Minty copes with the peculiar ways in which people deal with fractious relationships. Her efforts to solve all their problems range from heroic to hilarious, but lead to unintended consequences which alter the course of her life.