Eight young women from the Vassar College class of 1933 rush out into the world to find exciting lives, but discover nothing is quite as they dreamed. Rather than blazing trails in art, science and literature, the friends are each variously burdened with disappointing relationships, children, aging parents and unemployment. Kay Strong (Joanna Pettet), the center of the group, gradually loses faith in the promise of their lives and, as war approaches, becomes unhinged.