1963, Mexico, Maine: The Wood family is much like its close, Catholic, immigrant neighbors. But when Dad suddenly dies on his way to work, Mum and the four deeply connected Wood girls are set adrift. WHEN WE WERE THE KENNEDYS is the story of how this family saves itself, at first by enlisting the help of Mum's brother, a charismatic Catholic priest. And then, come November --- her country shocked by the president's death and her town bracing for a labor strike --- Mum announces an unprecedented family road trip. Inspired by the televised grace of Jackie Kennedy, herself a new widow with young children, Mum and her girls head to "our nation's capital" to do some rescuing of their own. The result is an indelible story of how family and nation, each shocked by the unimaginable, exchanges one identity for another.