This is the love story of Ethel and Norma Thayer, who are returning to their summer home on Golden Pond for the 48th year. Norman is a retired profession, nearing eighty, with heart palpitations, failing memory, but still as tart-tongued, observant, and eager for life as ever. Ethel, 10 years younger, and the perfect foil for Norman, delights in the small things that have enriched and continue to enrich their long life together. They are visited by their divorced, middle-age daugher, her fiance and her teenage son. The daugher and fiance soon leave for their own vacation leaving the teenager behind for the summer. The boy and Norman dislike each other from the start and the summer looks long and depressing. But through a near-fatal fishing accident their bond is strengthened and the boy quickly becomes the "grandchild" the elderly couple have longed for. Through the warm relationship with their grandson they are finally able to express affection with their daughter and strengthen the relationship. By the end of summer Ethel and Norman realize that the time is now against them, but the years have been good and perhaps, another summer on Golden Pond still awaits.