This film tells a story about Gilbert Grape. He is a grocery store worker who is burdened by his family's needs. He cares and provides for a intellectually disabled young adult brother and a morbidly obese mother. The Grape household has deteriorated since the suicide of their father and Gilbert bares the weight (no pun intended) of a struggling poor American family. In this tale, Gilbert has a string of risky affairs which complicates matters. This movie tells a more realistic version of the trials and tribulations of barely functioning family in the mid-west of America.