Ruth Whitney, a stoic, seventy year old woman whose husband unexpectedly abandoned her six years prior, quietly struggles to cope amidst a shattered world of financial and emotional adversity.  Once well-off, with a successful husband and close family, Ruth now lives in a dilapidated summerhouse in rural New Jersey, works a minimum-wage job in a local motel, and clings to her rigid and sometimes comical daily regimen.  Meanwhile, her daughter Liz, a phobia-prone forty-something, is attempting to finish her Ph.D. in California, hoping to support both herself and her mother.  Worried about her mother’s worsening situation, Liz convinces Ruth to move out west and begin a new life.  Ruth agrees, but not without reluctance, as she tacitly carries with her a red suitcase full of her estranged husband’s clothes. In a beat-up station wagon filled to the brim, Ruth and Liz begin an odyssey across America.  Full of humorous adventures, colorful characters and dramatic revelations, the trip continually tests Ruth’s wavering resolve to start a new life.  
Through this journey, and the complex and unbreakable bond with her daughter, Ruth finds the strength to let go of the past and face the future, proving it is never too late.