MIMI MALLOY, AT LAST!

A daughter of the Great Depression, Mimi Malloy was born into an Irish-Catholic brood of seven, and she has done her best to raise six daughters of her own. Now they're grown, and Mimi, a divorcee, finds herself unexpectedly retired, enjoying the comforts of her new life: her apartment in the heart of Quincy, the occasional True Blue cigarette, and evenings with Frank Sinatra on the stereo and a highball in her hand. Yet when an MRI reveals that her brain is filled with black spots-areas of atrophy, the doctor says - it looks as if Mimi's license to live as she pleases will be revoked. Increasingly, her eldest calls to preach the gospel of assisted living, while Mimi's surviving sisters question her indifference to the past. But as Mimi prepares to take her stand, she stumbles upon an old pendant of her mother's and, slowly, her memory starts to return - specifically, recollections of a shocking and painful childhood, including her sister who was sent away to Ireland and the wicked stepmother she swore to forget.