Based on the critically acclaimed book "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham ("The Hours" was the original working title of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway"), the story follows three women living in three different eras whose lives are connected through time by Woolf's novel, "Mrs. Dalloway."

The tale begins with Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman sporting a prosthetic nose and drab clothing) fighting a severe case of depression/mental illness while beginning work on her novel, which will ultimately become "Mrs. Dalloway."

The second element of the story picks up with Laura Brown (Julianne Moore looking like a fragile porcelain doll) living in Los Angeles shortly after World War II. Laura struggles with the idea that her life has no use other than taking care of her young son and doting husband (John C. Reilly).

As she reads "Mrs. Dalloway," she empathizes with its main character. The novel prompts her toward a devastating decision that will forever change her family's destiny. Of the three women, Brown's tale is perhaps the saddest segment of the film.

Her failure to complete the simplest task - baking a cake for her husband's birthday - and her desire to find some meaning to her life, absolutely tears at your heart.

The third and final story takes place in modern day New York City. Clarissa Vaughan's (Meryl Streep) life has in its own way, paralleled that of Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway.

She's devoted herself to caring for her best friend and former lover, Richard (Ed Harris), a brilliant poet who is dying of AIDS.

Everything she does revolves around giving herself to his care. Clarissa's portion of the tale focuses on the planning and preparation of a party to celebrate an award Richard's set to receive.

While planning the party, Clarissa is jolted into the awareness that her own life, her own happiness, and her own needs, have taken a back seat to taking care of Richard.

Clarissa Vaughn (Meryl Streep) is an openly lesbian mom living with her loving mate (Allison Janney).

She has gay friends who nicknamed her Mrs. Dalloway way back when.

She takes care for her old gay lover Richard (Ed Harris) who is dying of AIDS.

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Vanessa Bell: Virginia!
Virginia Woolf: Leonard thinks it's the end of civilization: People who are invited at 4 and arrive at 2:30.
Vanessa Bell: Oh God!
Virginia Woolf: Barbarians!

Leonard Woolf: If I didn't know you better I'd call this ingratitude.
Virginia Woolf: I am ungrateful? You call ME ungrateful? My life has been stolen from me. I'm living in a town I have no wish to live in... I'm living a life I have no wish to live.... How did this happen?

Virginia Woolf I'm dying in this town!
Leonard Woolf: If you were thinking clearly, Virginia, you would recall it was London that brought you low.
Virginia Woolf: If I were thinking clearly? If I were thinking clearly?
Leonard Woolf: We brought you to Richmond to give you peace.
Virginia Woolf: If I were thinking clearly, Leonard, I would tell you that I wrestle alone in the dark, in the deep dark, and that only I can know. Only I can understand my condition. You live with the threat, you tell me you live with the threat of my extinction. Leonard, I live with it too.

Virginia Woolf: This is my right; it is the right of every human being. I choose not the suffocating anesthetic of the suburbs, but the violent jolt of the Capital, that is my choice. The meanest patient, yes, even the very lowest is allowed some say in the matter of her own prescription. Thereby she defines her humanity. I wish, for your sake, Leonard, I could be happy in this quietness.
[pause]
But if it is a choice between Richmond and death, I choose death.

Clarissa Vaughn: Alright Richard, do me one, simple favor: Come. Come sit..
Richard Brown: I don't think I can make it to the party, Clarissa.
Clarissa Vaughn: Uh.. You don't have to go to the party, you don't have to go to the ceremony, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. You can do as you like.
Richard Brown: But I still have to face the hours, don't I? I mean, the hours after the party, and the hours after that...
Clarissa Vaughn: You do have good days still.. You know you do!
Richard Brown: Not really...I mean, it's kind of you to say so, but it's not really true.

Virginia Woolf: Leonard, you cannot find peace by avoiding life.

Richard Brown: Who is this party for?
Clarissa Vaughan: What are you asking, what are you trying to say?
Kitty: Oh, you're reading a book?
Laura Brown: Yeah.
Kitty: What's this one about?
Laura Brown: Oh, it's about this woman who's incredibly -- well, she's a hostess and she's incredibly confident and she's going to give a party. And, maybe because she's confident, everyone thinks she's fine... but she isn't.

Clarissa Vaughn: That is what we do. That is what people do. They stay alive for each other.

Virginia Woolf: Dear Leonard, To look life in the face, always, to look life in the face, and to know it for what it is. At last to know it, to love it, for what it is, and then, to put it away. Leonard, always the years between us, always the years, always the love, always...the hours...

Clarissa Vaughn: I don't know what's happening to me. I seemed to be unraveling.

Richard Brown: I don't think two people could have been happier than we've been.

Virginia Woolf: [Talking to her husband] Leonard, I believe I may have a first sentence.

Dan Brown: This life is what I always wanted. I had a vision of our happiness.

Julia: MOM! What's wrong?
Clarissa Vaughn: He gives me that look, as if to say your life is so trivial.
Julia: It only matters if you think its true.

Virginia Woolf: [writing in her book in 1921] Mrs. Dallaway said "She would buy the flowers herself.

Dan Brown: Come to bed, LAURA BROWN!!

Virginia Woolf: I've been attended by doctors, who inform me OF MY OWN INTERESTS!

Richard Brown: WHAT ABOUT YOUR OWN LIFE?!! Just wait until I die, then you will have to think of yourself.

Laura Brown: We're baking the cake for daddy, to show him that we love him.
Richie Brown: Otherwise he won't know?
[pause]
Laura Brown: That's right.

Richie Brown: MOMMY! I love you.
Laura Brown: Don't worry honey, everything is fine. You are still my guy.

Vanessa Bell: Your aunt is a very lucky woman, Angelica! She is because she has two lives. She has the life, she is leading and also the books, she is writing.

Laura Brown: Don't worry, honey. Everything's fine. We're going to have a wonderful party. We've made Daddy such a nice cake.

Virginia Woolf: I can't think of anything more exhilarating than a trip to London.

Richard Brown: I'm not trying to say anything. I think I'm staying alive just to satisfy you.

Virginia Woolf: A woman's whole life, in a single day, just one day, and then that day, her whole life.

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