With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King (Clooney), takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront the young real estate broker (Lillard) who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.

From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, The Descendantsis a sometimes humourous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.