The Whales of August

Plots: Two aged sisters reflect on life and the past during a late summer day in Maine. It’s August. Like they have most summers, elderly widowed sisters Libby Strong and Sarah Webber, who live in Philadelphia, are staying together in the family’s summer cottage on an island off the coast of Maine. The cottage, which now belongs to Sarah, has been in their family most of their lives, was the family’s summer getaway from Philadelphia when they were younger. There are a few people who have been friends or acquaintances on the island, including the outspoken Tisha Dought, and Joshua Brackett. Someone new at least to Sarah’s social circle is Mr. Maranov, a former Russian aristocrat. His stay on the island is threatened when his landlady, Hilda Partridge, passes away. Sarah and Libby have come to the realization they are in the respective twilight of their lives, Sarah, who still keeps busy and wants to savor life’s pleasures, acts as now sightless, cantankerous and bitter Libby’s caregiver. Sarah knows she can no longer take care of Libby. As such, Sarah has to make alternate living arrangements instead of the Philadelphia house.Those arrangements will not involve Libby’s estranged daughter Anna, who has the means to take care of her mother, although not the want. It is their interactions with Tisha and Mr. Maranov which may decide their sisterly fate for the immediate future. Two elderly sisters spend a traditional August at their seaside home in Maine, for perhaps the last time. Their attitudes and outlook on life and death, both old and new, continually effect their relationship with each other, and with their distinguished and not so distinguished neighbors.