Sue McFate is finding it difficult to announce her engagement. For one thing, her family has never once heard she has a boyfriend. For another, her intended husband doesn’t even know her real name. Sue has come home to make the problematic announcement, but finds herself stymied when she realizes that her fiancé, Felix, will be a huge disappointment to her family, who include an obsessive ornithologist, a compulsive mezzo soprano, a murderous chef, an occasionally-mute savant and a split-personality linguist. This crowd won’t be terribly impressed by Sue’s choice: Felix is (yawn) a civil engineer.

Mother is dyin’, and there ain’t a single thing anyone can do. So she has asked her daughters to discuss her plan to end her life by refusing further treatment for progressive pulmonary fibrosis. Sue, her steady, sensible daughter refuses to hear this plan, while Imogen, her more dramatic child, wants to honor their mother’s wishes. The piece seeks to approach a difficult subject with some humor, treating with equal respect the fears and vanities of a dying woman, and the various forms denial can take in her loved ones.

Five relationships navigate hairpin turns, with some approaching the end of their run, while others are embarking on new adventures. In the chaos of love, some grow stronger while others retreat. Whether they experience entrapment or liberation, whether they blurt out the truth or cling to the lies, at the end of this difficult, neurotic, hilarious meal, no one is quite the same. Like an appetizer that doesn’t quite satisfy, Claire and William discover that their youthful passion can’t sustain them through the daily grind of adulthood. And much as one might regret his choice of entree, Edgar questions his choice not to be a real father to Sophie. Sophie, meanwhile, learns she doesn’t much care for dinner dates with Dad. Grace is sorely tempted by novelty, and struggles to remain faithful to both her “usual” (the linguine), and her husband (Nick). Rebecca wants to try, possibly to take, whatever Grace is having, be it her entree or her husband. Nick will take whatever basic comforts, food or women, are offered to him, while James longs for the adventure represented by Grace... and the sturgeon. This foursome is a tangled mess of indecision, insecurity and mis-aligned loyalties. Above it all ride Patrick and Lily, whose neuroses mask a surprisingly functional relationship. But are they ready for the next step -- parenthood? What are they giving up? What if their kid hates them? Despite the insanity swirling around them, this is their time to mincingly edge towards the precipice and reaffirm that whatever dish gets served up next, the meal is a good one.

What happens when an every-man (or woman) attempts to trick fate, and stack the cosmic deck in her favor? Upon narrowly missing a traffic accident, Anna, a comfortable, perhaps complacent, suburbanite, faces the realization that we are one fluke away from tragedy, every moment of our lives. Therefore, she reasons, we must likewise be one fluke from bliss. With that in mind, she launches a campaign to entice chance to be on her side, to create “positive random events.” Anna narrowly keeps ahead of the law while her husband tries to cope with her assault on karma, and her friends try to stop it. The universe, however, refuses to cooperate, with each of Anna’s effort ending more disastrously than the last: as ever, chance remains indifferent to her preferences.