In a society which seems to be constantly beating the anti-marriage drum, this is a film worth seeing.
In the opening scenes Winona Ryder (Fin) begins to talk to us. Her boyfriend is knocking down walls, revamping the house in which they hope to live, while she is struggling to write her thesis. The noise is too much for her studies, so she decides to leave and spend the summer in the rural setting of the home of her grandmother and great aunt. She needs to work. But Fin's boyfriend senses that perhaps this is not the only reason. He is right. She is thinking through her future.
In grandmother's big country house a circle of women meet to spend time making a quilt. They come every day throughout the summer. The American quilt is patchwork. Each woman makes her own patches, each one embroidered or patterned in some way to make it significant for her. Then the patches are sewn together. The task provides a warm lazy atmosphere for gossip and bickering. But our heroine panics as they tell her the quilt is for her forthcoming marriage.
