To help his oldest daughter through a crisis, 70-year-old farmer Percy Darling sacrifices his reclusive lifestyle and allows a preschool to move into his barn. However, his new sociality forces him to take a hard look at how he has lived his life for the past 30 years since his wife's tragic death. Meanwhile, his grandson Robert takes to the Harvard campus with a renewed sense of environmental consciousness, something which only leads him to trouble.