After discovering that his estranged mother’s coffin holds mementos from his childhood—instead of her body—an uptight exec bucks against the confines of his domineering father's hand-me-down life path in order to reclaim the cosmically mystical road Mom had shown him all those years ago, one that's as close as the grass under his feet.

SYNOPSIS:

Pushing 30, CY McHENRY is a driven Chicago executive who loves the hustle—but doesn’t quite belong in it. He craves the security and status his domineering Southern father, AMOS, represents, even as he distances himself from the Arkansas roots he thought he escaped. When Cy finds a grand antebellum house for sale that reminds him of his childhood home, he confesses to his free-spirited, digital-nomad girlfriend JACKIE that he wants that life: stability, permanence, and a future with her. Jackie, proudly “spiritual but not religious,” loves Cy’s reliability, but not his rigidity. She wants movement, not mortgages.

News of Cy’s estranged mother KATHERINE’s death forces a reckoning. Though he hasn’t spoken to her since he was ten, Cy is torn between attending the funeral and chasing a career-defining promotion. Jackie, still grieving her own mom, insists on driving him back to rural Arkansas in her vintage VW bus. Along the way, their clashing relationships with faith, family, and belonging surface—played against the fall beauty of the Ozarks that Cy barely notices.

At the homestead, Cy confronts the world he left behind: Amos’ rigid moralism, his money-fueled influence over the town, and his own unresolved resentment. He reconnects with his cynical younger brother JERRY, who despises both Amos’ hypocrisy and Cy’s reluctance to challenge it. When Cy learns that Katherine’s coffin contains not her body but his childhood mementos she secretly preserved, everything he believed about his parents fractures.

Katherine’s only friend, the sharp-tongued ALICE, reveals the truth: Amos forced Katherine to abandon her nature-based spiritual beliefs—and ultimately her sons—by threatening her with jail under false kidnapping charges. Cy struggles to accept this version of events, because it means letting go of the father he idolizes. When Amos offers Cy the family house and land, Cy is tempted by the promise of legacy and control. Jackie, horrified by the man he’s becoming, prepares to leave.

Desperate for clarity, Cy breaks into his mother’s old home and discovers letters and artifacts that reveal Katherine’s worldview: a quiet, mystical belief in unity through nature, presence, and compassion. For the first time, Cy understands the spiritual language she once tried to teach him. He begins to see beauty—and meaning—in nature's smallest details.

Reunited with Jackie, Cy finally stands up to Amos, rejecting both his bribes and his worldview. He reconciles with Jerry and honors Katherine’s legacy by selling the family land to his brother for one dollar, fulfilling a childhood promise. Together, Cy and Jackie choose a nomadic life with purpose, traveling to help build community spaces rooted in Katherine’s unifying vision.

It's a darkly funny, emotionally grounded drama about inherited belief systems, the courage to redefine “home,” and the quiet power of spiritual presence. It’s about learning to live not in the shadow of the past or the promise of the future—but fully wisely, and compassionately in the now.

THE SECRET MINISTRY OF GRASS