Maggie Singer (Susan Sarandon) is an obsessive, superstitious and moderately psychic woman who has premonitions in her dreams. The mother of seven children, only one of which still lives at home, she is getting divorced from her husband, and plans to move into the city and take a job as a civil servant. When she learns that there has been a terrorist explosion on the military base where one of her sons, Percival, is stationed with the Marines, her family gathers at the house and attempts to find out what has happened.