***SPOILERS*** Life has never been easy for Ruth Gray, Nicholle Tom, who was brought up by her single mom Maylene, Christine Lahti, after her drunken husband Willard checked out on her. Ruth also lived in the shadows of her genius older brother Matt, Billy Wickman,the very first student graduating from Honey Creek High to be accepted in MIT. It was destined for Ruth to be a just plain Jane type and not make any big waves in life until she met her future husband Ruby, Even Jones, who swept her off her feet with his very earthy and crud personality.
Always acting childish and never trying to get a decent job to support Ruth and later the couple's child Justy Ruby really started to get under Maylene's skin by being behind in the rent with his wife Ruth doing all the heavy lifting,in working together with her mom at the Nice "N Tidy Drycleaners laundry, while he just stayed in the house drinking beer and building bird houses! It was at the dinner table that Ruby really showed just how uncouth and irritating he is by purposely letting off gas,flatulence, that just about killed everyone's appetite including little Justy sitting there!
Always looking for a way out not to work for a living Ruby after getting a job, with both Ruth & Maylene's help, at the Nice "N Tidy Drycleaners got himself good and stoned on pills that he staggered out on the street to get some air and was hit by a car whom he, by not looking where he was going, stepped in front of! Back at home making a complete jerk of himself Ruby's anti social behavior started to get so out of hand that Maylene was just about forced to throw him out together with her daughter Ruth, and even grandchild Justy, who refused to let go of him!
***MAJOR SPOILERS*** We already knew what happened at the Gray House when the movie started with a battered and bruised Ruth being interrogated by the police but it takes the entire film,in a number of flashbacks, to get to the bottom of what really happened there. Ruby it's later learned confessed to the brutal beating and murder of his mother-in-law Maylene thus exonerating the totally innocent Ruth in her death! Ruby was an obvious time bomb just waiting to explode and it was both Maylene and Ruth putting up with his off the wall actions and not getting him help in controlling his violent temper that in the end lead to the slaughter we first get to see in the film!
As for Ruby himself he finally came to his senses but only after murdering someone. But now instead of being forced to take a number of anger management classes he's facing life behind bars with no chance of parole!
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