Ethel and Norman Thayer are an old couple living "On Golden Pond". Their daughter, Chelsea, is 42 years old, and has never been married. She is dating a 45 year old dentist, and brings him up to Golden Pond to meet her parents. Her boyfriend, Bill, has a 14 year old son named Billy, who comes along. Young Billy has been virtually raised by his mother, who is newly divorced from his father. The troubled child is left with the elderly Thayers for some time, as his father and Chelsea take off for a tour of Europe. Character-driven story about an elderly man coming to terms with his age, and the nearing of death; a middle-aged woman attempting to enter into a father-daughter relationship with her dad, whom she has never known closely; and a young teenager dealing with parental divorce. Written by Laura K. B.

六十年代末，越南战争正在进行中，拉尔夫（小罗伯特·唐尼饰）和斯科特（基弗·萨瑟兰饰）是一对生活在一个保守小镇的好朋友。斯科特的哥哥应征入伍前往越南，他们借机表达了自己的反战立场，斯科特的态度疏远了他与父亲的关系。斯科特和拉尔夫于是驾车离开小镇去享受他们心目中的自由，当他们回到镇里却得到了哥哥阵亡的消息，拉尔夫为了逃避兵役的妹妹贝丝（薇诺娜·瑞德饰）和斯科特前往档案处不慎被捕。斯科特哥哥之死成为了弥合父子隔阂的催化剂，并且引起了小镇人们对于战争代价的反思。