Family tensions explode for a loving couple, Ethel and Norman Thayer (Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda in Academy Award® winning performances) at their New England summer cabin on Golden Pond. Their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) has come to visit with her new lover Bill (Dabney Coleman) and his tough young son, Billy (Doug McKeon). The Three generations collide. But what begins as a stubborn battle of wills between Norman and Billy slowly turns into a relationship that Chelsea always wanted with her father and Norman discovers how much he has missed by denying his daughter's love.