1949

The middle-aged housewife watches a Hollywood woman enter a restaurant before she's shushed away from the window.

This timid creature moves through life as if invisible. She's been told to wait because the meek will inherit the earth. Her name is Alma Philcott.

Alma will go from inconsequential to infamous when Vonda Van Essen dies. There is an opening at the garden club, an elite and difficult-to-get-into club. She's thrilled because she has an amazing garden.

Her husband thinks that rich women have gardeners, so the competition will be fierce.

Alma's daughter, Dee, needs a hem sewn, and Alma rises to the challenge with questionable results.

They chat about garden club, and Dee urges Alma to try again to join. A memorable woman would walk up to the member and say, "I'd like to join your club.

Alma's husband, a doctor, is beloved by all, especially his patients. He's a veterinarian.

His first patient is a dog named Biscuit, and his owner has to put him down. He plays music and speaks softly to them, probably more softly than he speaks to Alma.

Alma takes a hybrid tea rose to the garden club, and it doesn't go well. Rita Castillo, though, asks Alma to Von Essen's memorial.

Rita leads a sordid life. She visits a private eye named Vern to ask him to follow her lover.

Bertram's customer is into him, but he informs her he's happily married.

Alma sees Mrs. Yost on the street and asks about the Elysian Park Garden Club, but she discovers she wasn't invited to a party at all. It's a fundraiser that you have to pay to enter.

Mrs. Yost also reveals that the club isn't a garden club but a place for society women to gather to stay busy and gossip. And they only do it themselves. Alma is a frump, Mrs. Yost says, and they aren't admitted to the club.

Rita meets with Gigi about the party preparations.

Rita's husband comes down without pants demanding to know where his blue suit is.

Alma wants a new dress, and when Bertie asks why she can't wear another dress, she tells him. She's never remembered, and if she is, it's never by name; it's as the veterinarian's wife. When they hug, Bertie is turned on, but Alma doesn't take his cue for sex. Instead, he goes to the Maui Club to see his client, Maisie.

She's covered in bruises. She says she's got a condition.

Vern is following Scooter, who is eyeing the ladies as he walks down the street. Dee waits on Vern, giving him a copy of her magazine on the subject to read while he's tailing someone.

Bertie and Maisie are walking arm-in-arm down the street, singing. She's lonely and without family, but she has him now. She asks him up for a nightcap, and he would have gone if not for neighbors in the window.

When Alma looks at dresses, she finds something she loves, but it's $800. She decides to make her own.

Carlo insults Rita at dinner, and she decides to cut him off from whiskey. He's sure she has a lover, but her taunting of him gets him to drink more, which appears to be her MO.

Scooter is practicing scenes in the mirror when Rita calls with good news and a change of plans.

Alma's needle on her sewing machine breaks mid-project. Upstairs, she finds a broach that belonged to Enid Dolan. Dee comes home, concerned that Alma is still awake.

Scooter and Rita are hot and heavy when the cat wakes Carlo.

Carlo moves quicker down the stairs when he's sure he's caught her, and he tumbles straight down.

Alma is thrilled in her bright pink dress.

Rita's friends worry about her since Carlo is in the hospital.

Alma falls on her butt, covered in mulch when Rita sees her.

Rita uses a passive-aggressive comment to insult Alma.

Dee and Scooter have a thing!!

Grace Burke says hello to Alma, fascinated with her cameo. Her Aunt Enid had one just like it.

Rita receives bad news. Carlo may not regain his speech or basic motor functions, but with loving care from Rita, he could live another 20 years.

Alma returns the broach to Grace, saying she bought it at a rummage sale at the church. Grace offers to repay her, but Alma says it was just an honor to return it.

When another member asks if that was the veterinarian's wife, Grace says her name is Alma, and she's just the sweetest thing. She wonders if Alma might be interested in joining their little club.

Scooter gets bad news about the part. He really likes Dee, but he makes her dress like a maid to come over so that they're not discovered. And, of course, Vern is outside, and he captures a photo of her leaving the place.

Bertram takes flowers to Maisie. She's got overdue medical bills from cirrhosis of the liver. He knows she's dying. She's tired, jaundiced, bruised.

He took her a nice bottle of wine. They sit and drink.

Alma checks the rest of the attic for more finds. She finds a hole in the wall with a hatbox inside. There are more tagged items.

Maisie was in the Ziegfield Follies.

Bertram put a sedative in Maisie's wine. She can barely move. He takes out a record and kills her just as he kills their pets. When he leaves, he scores her Ziegfield fan. The mementos are his

Alma has already figured it out, and she's wide awake in bed.