Nora (Olympia Dukakis) and her three grown daughters living in the suburbs of New York City are stunned when Tom (Roy Scheider) Nora's husband and the father of the girls comes back after 15 years and reunites their family. But he has changed. He insists that the family build a shelter underneath their house in which to live. Better Living is an intrigueing psychological family portrait that is at once funny and frightening.