A dealer in "outsider" art travels from Chicago to North Carolina to meet her new in-laws, challenging the equilibrium of this middle class Southern home.

Madeleine: I was born in Japan.
Ashley: You were not!
Peg: [examining an antique baby spoon] I don't believe that can go in the dishwasher...
Peg: What did you do with my eggs?
Johnny Johnsten: Stuffed 'em up my butt!
Madeleine: Did they sign a contract?
Bernadette: It wasn't clear; all I know is they were obviously influenced by someone's, you know, high-falutin' talkin'.
Ashley: [to Johnny after he throws a tantrum about not being to work the VCR] God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way.
Peg: Be quiet Eugene, nobody's listening to you.
Peg: [after they realize Ashley was ready to give birth] Where are you going?
Eugene: Bring the car upfront.
Peg: Don't just stand there go get the car!
Ashley: I hate hospitals, but it wasn't really all that scary. All the needles and stuff. It wasn't that bad. I'll tell you what the scariest thing is to me - the scariest thing to me is Johnny. It is. He didn't say nothin'. Not one word. At least I don't know what it is, and I think he really did want it, too. Just a boy - you know how I know? I heard him tell your pa to paint the cradle brown. You just wouldn't put a baby girl in a brown cradle. You just wouldn't.
[starts to cry]
Ashley: I don't know what he's thinkin'. It's not my fault! And all that time and all that stuff I got and all those months, it was just all for nothin'! And those fucking doctors, they think they know everything but they don't know anything! They don't know anything! Oh, I don't understand! I don't understand. Why would God let this happen? Why would he? I just wanted something good to come out of all this. I mean it... I really mean it.
Ashley: You always know what I need.
[pause]
Ashley: You know, all I want in the whole world is for Johnny to love me like he did in high school.
[pause]
Ashley: You held him, didn't you? Aw, he was beautiful. He was perfect.
George Johnsten: He was.
Ashley: He was blue.
Peg: [to Madeleine] You came all the way from Chicago to find a good artist?
Peg: I don't want your water breaking. We just had the upholstery cleaned.
Eugene: Where would I be if I was a screwdriver?
Madeleine: You like this one?
George Johnsten: Makes me happy... but I'm gonna buy the UFO.
Eugene: I have done some screwing in here I guess.
Ashley: I wonder what she looks like. I bet she's skinny. She probably is. She's skinnier'n me and prettier too. Now I'll hate her. Oh, I can't wait!
Ashley: I can't sit down! I'm too excited!
Madeleine: [Madeleine is helping Johnny with his book report on Huckleberry Finn] Their relationship is Huck's gradual love affair with this slave is a major theme...
Johnny Johnsten: Wa-wa-wait, they fall in love with each other? I don't think you're talking about the right book...
[laughs nervously]
Madeleine: I even bite my toenails.
Ashley: You do not!