Plot
Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) is an affluent widow in suburban New England, whose social life involves her country club peers, college-age children, and a couple of men vying for her affection.
She becomes interested in Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson), her family's gardener and a down-to-earth, younger man. Ron is content with his simple life outside of judgmental society, and the two fall in love. Ron introduces her to other people who have no need for wealth and status, and she responds positively. Cary accepts his proposal for marriage, but becomes distressed when her friends and children look down upon and reject her for this socially unacceptable marriage. Cary breaks off the marriage when her children threaten to abandon her, and she and Ron continue their separate lives in sorrow.
As Cary's social life returns to its original state, she notices other women becoming engaged and living lives of happiness. Even her own children are soon to leave the family home. Cary realizes that she is ready to defy social norms and commit to loving Ron. She rushes to his side when he has a life-threatening accident, telling him that she has come home.
Read more about this topic: All That Heaven Allows
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“There saw I how the secret felon wrought,
And treason labouring in the traitor’s thought,
And midwife Time the ripened plot to murder brought.”
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)
“Trade and the streets ensnare us,
Our bodies are weak and worn;
We plot and corrupt each other,
And we despoil the unborn.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)