苏珊娜(梅丽尔·斯特里普 Meryl Streep 饰)曾经是风光一时的电影明星,但如今却落魄不堪,毒瘾和负面新闻缠身。终于,一次吸毒过量将她放倒送进了医院,这让苏珊娜意识到,自己不能再这样堕落下去了。出院后,经纪人马蒂(加里·莫顿 Gary Morton 饰)好不容易替苏珊娜找到了一个角色,然而,在排演的现场,苏珊娜却遭遇了种种不顺。 苏珊娜得知,那一天救了自己的是一位名叫杰克(丹尼斯·奎德 Dennis Quaid 饰)的制片人,两人坠入了情网,然而 杰克不端的品行令这段关系很快就划上了休止符。之后,苏珊娜决定从戒毒开始洗心革面重新做人,很快她就发现,当她以端正的姿态认真的看待生活时,生活也会善待她。Substance-addicted Hollywood actress Suzanne Vale is on the skids. After a spell at a detox centre her film company insists as a condition of continuing to employ her that she live with her mother Doris Mann, herself once a star and now a champion drinker. Such a set-up is bad news for Suzanne who has struggled for years to get out of her mother's shadow, and who finds her mother still treats her like a child. Despite these problems - and further ones to do with the men in in her life - Suzanne can begin to see the funny side of her situation, and it also starts to occur to her that not only do daughters have mothers, mothers do too.