How to Make an American Quilt

Twenty-six year old graduate student Finn Dodd is indecisive in so many areas of her life for many reasons. Despite having just accepted the marriage proposal of her live-in boyfriend, Sam, a carpenter, Finn does not want to end up the way of her hippie parents, who divorced because they realized they made better friends than lovers. As such, she decides she needs the summer away from Sam both to evaluate her relationship with him, and to restart her thesis yet again, her current topic being the ritual associated with handicrafts. She will be spending the summer living with her maternal grandmother Hy and her Great Aunt Glady, while she spends time with their quilting bee, who have been together as a social collective since before Finn was born, and with who Finn spent many a day as a child. The quilt they are currently working on is Finn's wedding present, a patchwork representing each woman's place of love. As Finn hears the stories of these women, especially of their love lives which has affected the person each is today and the romantic relationships with the men in their lives, Finn applies their lessons to her own life. She may get to test further her commitment to Sam when she meets a local man named Leon, with who she is mutually attracted.