When Roscoe, a 65-year-old Cervantes scholar, runs off with a young woman named Sally, he decides to stay a while in her family home. Soon he discovers that Sally housence inhabited by James Dean; perched precariously over the San Fernando valleys filled with secrets, sadness, and haunted women who cannot leave themselves or anyone else in peace. From Lucy, Sally suspicious sister, to Mable, their Shakespeare-quoting invalid mother, to Elizabeth, Mable lovely and mysteriously mute nurse, the forces of the house conspire to make Roscoe question his assumptions about everything. As scars and histories are revealed, Shepard shows, as only he can, what happens when the secrets simmering within a family boil over. Heartless masterfully explores the irrevocability of our pastsnd the possibility of life begun anew.