Plot
Laura Jaconi's therapist works her through trust and abandonment issues, stemming from her father Jack's lifetime of treatment. His lack of respect for her boundaries is problematic, causing her to cope strangely by adopting abandoned pets.
At home there is a motley collection of nine dogs and cats with various maladies. When Jim, a man that single-mom Laura has been seeing, is woken by a cat scratching his face, he breaks it off. Her teenaged son Henry gives him a twisted sketch of how he imagines him naked as a parting gift.
Dropping Henry off at school, Laura asks him to keep out of trouble as she'd rather not deal with the principal again. Arriving late to her work as an executive assistant, her excessively wealthy boss drives her crazy over her daughter's sweet-16 party, as she's nit-picking everything.
After school, Laura does have to meet Henry's principal. Not only has he slapped her as he tried to get back at one of his tormentors, but she found a lewd sketch of herself. He gets expelled, so Laura is given a list of private schools to try.
Desperate, needing to pay for an expensive private school, Laura finally calls back Jack looking for help. He's desperate also, as his home is throwing him out for dealing. They do a trade, he'll help get her the money in exchange for picking him up.
As Laura and Henry head to the home, she calls her sister JoJo in LA, asking her to take in their father. Although not too excited to do it, she says yes so they visit. At the home, Jack shows his grandson the greenhouse holding his huge crop of marijuana, the reason he's being discharged. He then insists Laura drive them in his Rolls under the guise of them spending time together, implying he has stage four cancer.
Laura convinces her workmate Serge to take in five of their dogs and make up a sick leave excuse, in exchange for a future date. The makeshift family with four dogs do a road trip down the coast from Seattle, through Oregon, San Francisco, and LA. Although she wants to drive straight through, Jack reprograms her sat-nav, and they stop at art forger Stan's for the night.
Jack confides in Henry, showing him the trunk holds weed worth 200,000. He confesses he's a low level drug dealer, explaining he needs help to unload it on their route. At dawn, unbeknownst to Laura, Henry helps Jack deliver to a Buddhist colony.
Several stops later, Jack coerces them to stop at Henry's dad Leonard's, who'd abandoned them and divorced Laura three years ago. Henry pretends he wants closure but neither father nor son is interested. Laura sleeps with Leonard, but in the morning realizes that their relationship, or lack thereof, is equally toxic as that of her father. He is not remotely interested in helping with Henry's private schooling. Laura discovers Leonard's remarried and tells Jack, who warns him to stay away from them all, punching him. Leonard retaliates by telling her that Jack's distributing on their way.
Laura finally makes Jack see how much he's hurt her over the years, then proceeds to scatter the remaining bags of product over the asphalt. Just then, a police cruiser approaches, so she frantically retrieves them. Once the officer runs her license, he takes her into the station for over 3,000 in unpaid parking tickets.
Jack's last drop is at his friend Joey's, but before he can leave with the money two black-clad figures burst in, demanding it. Their voice-disguising equipment fails and Joey realises it's his grandson. Laura jumps in behind them with a bow and arrow, scaring them off.
Finally arriving to JoJo's, Jack is underwhelmed, although the evening ends well. By morning he has left with the car, however left a large amount of money for the private school. Laura, Henry and five dogs, one which they adopted on the trip, head back to Seattle by bus.
In Seattle, checking in with Serge, Laura confirms their Friday date, then she and Henry arrive home. Jack surprises them with yet another stray, announcing he's there to stay and plans to change.
