In June 1933, eight young women, who are close friends and members of the upper-class group at South Tower College, to graduate and sta rt their adult lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows. The lives of a group of eight friends, who are seen as the aesthetes of the Vassar class of 1933, are presented from their graduation, when their lives held so much promise despite the Depression, to the start of WWII. Ambitious theater major Kay, somewhat the outsider of the group, decides to get married immediately and support her struggling playwright husband Harald by getting a job at Macy's than pursue her own theater directing career. Kay, who takes everything personally, needs to be in control, which becomes more difficult as problems emerge in the marriage and as world event ...