Two very different eighty-year old women , one a nun and former college professor and the other a Jewish Communist and atheist , help each other face life and death literally in a New York City Catholic hospital room during a hospital workers’ strike.

SYNOPSIS:

At first, Sister Mary and Sylvia see only their philosophical and personality differences, uncovered in barbed conversation between Sister, a Ph. D., and Sylvia, a self-educated “culture vulture”. It is further enhanced through the frequent arrival of Sylvia’s daughter, Sister’s fellow sisters, distant doctors and a seen-it-all nurse.

The flow of traffic to their room slows down as a hospital workers’ strike builds. As they become more dependent on each other, their differences seem less important than their similarities, which are many.

It soon becomes clear that Sister Mary is going to recover and doesn’t want to and Sylvia is clinging fiercely to life, which is quickly draining out of her. Soon, their differences seem to melt and each helps the other to accept their inevitable outcomes.