As teenagers, Tom and Sheila escape to the promise and safety of religious life. Tom joins the priesthood, and Sheila enters the convent—both taking lifelong vows of celibacy and service to the Church. Their youthful, idealistic lives collide with the upheaval of the 1960s. Instead of lives filled with poverty, chastity, and obedience, Tom finds himself making movies in Rome, while Sheila becomes the first in her family to attend college amidst the anti-war and Civil Rights protests raging at the time.
In 1969, the two meet while teaching at a Catholic school and soon fall in love. Leaving the Church to start a life together, their story seems like a fairy tale—but not so fast. Once we discover the filmmaker is the daughter of these main characters, the film peels back the layers, re-examining and re-telling what first appeared to be a simple love story. The narrative tracks this family through the major events of the past century—the turbulence of the ‘60s, the rise of the internet, and increasing political polarization—alongside deeply personal events: childbirth, alcoholism, and divorce.
These intimate, human struggles often throw the family’s Catholic faith and their shared story into question. As the film progresses into its final act, it evolves into a document of what it means to be a Catholic American family over the last century, grappling with monumental social upheaval. It ultimately poses the question: how can we make sense of faith in our modern world?