Against a background of civil rights demonstrations, protests of the Vietnam war and the growing sense of the absurd fostered by the counter-culture, the Mikkelsons, Line, Marty and Paul, begin to find their feet. As they move into lives of their own, however, ties with their parents stretch thinner.

Marty moves first to Oxford, England, and then to Berkeley, California in quest of her cultural roots and a place from which she can think. Line studies nursing in Chicago and lives, on the weekends, with an SDS activist and organizer. Line’s pregnancy leaves them uncertain about what to do in the atmosphere of escalating violence. Expected to become a pastor, like Dad, Paul does not feel the call. He cannot talk to his parents about this problem, until he meets a young teacher from Alaska.