Two families, separated by centuries, who live in the same house in Vineland, New Jersey, struggle to cope when life as they know it seems to be crumbling around them. In the present, Willa Knox and her husband suddenly find themselves unemployed with only an inherited brick house that needs repair. Joining them in this dubious shelter is an elderly disabled parent, their free-spirited daughter, and their recently widowed Ivy-educated son and his child. In the past, science teacher Thatcher Greenwood admires the latest work by Charles Darwin but is forbidden to speak of it by his wife and mother-in-law who worry about scandal. His thoughts, and relationship with a woman scientist and a newspaper editor, put him at odds with powerful people around him.
