Plot

Four families in LA of different ethnicity (Latino, Asian/Vietnamese, African and Jewish) gather together for Thanksgiving dinner.

In Los Angeles, the loosely intertwined stories of four different extended families from four different ethno-cultural backgrounds - the Hispanic Avilas, the Vietnamese Nguyens, the Jewish Seeligs and the black Williamses - gathering for their respective Thanksgiving dinners are presented. Their stories are remarkably similar, but each with their own ethno-cultural spin: turkey with a twist being prepared primarily by the head female of the household, largely ethnic sides accompanying the turkey, football on television, and family dysfunction in many different forms pervading the atmosphere of the gathering, the elephant or elephants in the room which most in the know don't want to be discussed on what is supposed to be this day of thanks. A single event at one of the dinners has a profound effect on all four gatherings.—Huggo

In LA's Fairfax district, where ethnic groups abound, four households celebrate Thanksgiving amidst family tensions. In the Nguyen family, the children's acculturation and immigrant parents' fears collide. In the Avila family, Isabel's son has invited her estranged husband to their family dinner. Audrey and Ron Williams want to keep their own family's ruptures secret from Ron's visiting mother. In the Seelig household, Herb and Ruth are unwilling to discuss openly their grown daughter's living with her lover, Carla. Around each table, things come to a head. A gun, an affair, a boyfriend, and a pregnancy precipitate crises forcing each family to find its center.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Set in Los Angeles, California on Thanksgiving day, four ethnically diverse families -- Vietnamese, Latino, Jewish, and African American - gather for the traditional meal. Each family has its own distinct way of cooking the traditional holiday meal and its own set of problems.

Ruth and Herb Seelig (Lanie Kazan and Maury Chaykin) welcome their daughter Rachel (Kyra Sedgwick) home, along with her girlfriend Carla (Julianna Margulies). A traditional reformist Jewish couple, Ruth and Herb struggle to adjust their expectations for their daughter's future with her current living arrangement (having never fully recovered of Rachel coming out of the closet to them). On Thanksgiving, Rachel's older brother, Art (Albie Selznick), his wife Sarah (Suzanne Carney), and Sarah's brother, Jerry (Andrew Heckler), are in attendance as well as Bea (Estelle Harris) and David (Ralph Menza), an elderly Jewish couple (Herb's sister and husband) from a nearby retirement home. Over dinner, the overbearing Bea persistently questions Rachel about her romantic prospects, unaware that Rachel and Carla are lesbians, and Ruth and Herb both attempt to dissuade Bea from talking more, afraid that the truth of their daughter's homosexuality will come out. Eventually Rachel declares she has an announcement to make, much to her parents' chagrin, and states that she is pregnant. Her parents are dumbfounded, and it is revealed that Jerry, himself gay, was the sperm donor for Rachel and Carla. Rachel makes an impassioned plea to her family to accept her for who she is, and Ruth and Herb come to terms with accepting Carla and their impending new grandchild.

Mrs. Elizabeth "Lizzy" Avila (Mercedes Ruehl) is currently separated from her husband, Javier (Victor Rivers), after he ran off with Lizzy's cousin, Rosa. Meanwhile, Lizzy has taken a lover of her own, a co-worker named Daniel (A Martinez). The day before Thanksgiving, Lizzy and Javier's son, Tony (Douglas Spain), runs into his father at the grocery store. Finding out that his father would be celebrating Thanksgiving Day alone, Tony invites Javier to Lizzy's house the next day. When Lizzy finds out, she commands Tony to uninvite Javier, but the message is not conveyed. The Avilas' daughter, Gina (Isidra Vega), drives home from college on Thanksgiving Day with her Vietnamese-American boyfriend, Jimmy (Will Yung Lee). Jimmy faces some racist remarks from members of the Avila family, but he takes it in stride. At one point during the day, Lizzy sends Jimmy and Gina to return a VHS video cassette to the video store that Jimmy's family owns, and Jimmy witnesses his own family fighting, troubling him. Despite Gina's assurances that he can leave the Avila celebration to go check on his family, Jimmy declines, feeling that he can't be himself around them. Tensions boil over when Javier and Daniel arrive at Lizzy's house, leading to an argument between Lizzy and Javier. Lizzy refuses to give Javier a second chance for his infidelity and he storms out of the house.

Ronald Williams (Dennis Haysbert) works for the conservative, white governor of California (Frank Novak), much to the dismay of his activist Afroecentric son Michael (Eric K. George), who has progressive leanings and a strong sense of pride in his heritage. Michael and some friends attack the governor at a photo-shoot with white paint for the governor's recent stereotypical remarks on the African-American community, but Ronald uses his influence to keep Michael out of trouble. Meanwhile, Ronald's wife Audrey Williams (Alfre Woodard) and her daughter Kristin (Brittany Jean Henry) pick up Ronald's mother, Grace (Ann Weldon), from the airport. Audrey fields constant criticism and questions concerning Ronald and Michael's whereabouts from Grace, and when Ronald returns home he unsuccessfully tries to keep the peace between Grace and Audrey. On Thanksgiving Day, Ronald's white colleague James Moore (Gregory Itzin), his second wife Paula (Shareen Mitchell), and daughter from his first marriage, Monica (Mariam Parris), join the Williams. Grace gets into an argument with Audrey over the preparation of the food, Audrey choosing to prepare a traditional spread to impress the Moores rather than the usual soul food the Williams clan would enjoy on Thanksgiving. During dinner, Michael returns home and the secrets Ronald and Audrey were trying to hide all come out: Ronald had an affair with his co-worker, Michael dropped out of college, and Michael was the one behind the attack on the governor. Grace, Paula, and Michael comfort Audrey, who has an emotional breakdown, and Grace goes to confront her son. After the Moores leave, Ronald and Audrey reconcile, and Ronald gives his blessing to his son Michael to pursue his dreams.

Trinh and Duc Nguyen (Joan Chen and Francois Chau) are dealing with multiple problems at their home. Their oldest son, Jimmy (Gina Avila's boyfriend), away at college, lies to them saying he cannot come home for Thanksgiving due to a busy midterm schedule where in reality he is across the street at his girlfriend's house at the Avilas, celebrating Thanksgiving with them. Their daughter Jenny (Kristy Wu) is sneaking around with a white boyfriend, and is discovered to have a condom in her coat pocket. Their 13-year-old son son Gary (Jimmy Pham) was recently suspended from his school for bad behavior, and later Jenny discovers a gun hidden in Gary's bedroom. When she confronts him over the matter, he claims he's just keeping it for his gang member friend, so Jenny meets her boyfriend at the family's video store for advice. Duc arrives where he finds Jenny and her boyfriend in an intimate moment and drags Jenny back home to be berated by the family. Jenny's grandmother tries to comfort her after the fight, insisting that Trinh and Duc love her despite the cultural and generational differences in communication. Over a tense, silent Thanksgiving dinner, Jenny reveals to the family that Gary is hiding a gun, and the family now berates Gary, who they suspect is in a street gang. As the Nguyen family fights, youngest son Joey sees the gun on the kitchen table and accidentally fires it, breaking a window and getting the attention of the Nguyens' neighbors: the Avilas, the Williamses, and the Seeligs (all of whom are neighbors living on the same street). Hearing the gunshot from his house, Jimmy runs back home and rejoins his family as they recover from the multiple fights they had. Lizzy encourages Gina to introduce herself to the Nguyens, so the Nguyen clan finally sits down to enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner, now with Jimmy and Gina.