Plot: Contrary wise-guy Rex lost his job as engineer and keeps moving his family around in between poorly paid petty jobs, often fleeing debts, yet promises them a heaven on earth one day, when they built the dream 'glass castle' he keeps refining plans for. Eldest daughter Jeannette is preparing her wedding to doting great catch David, whom she met having paid her way through college and finding a New York job, and pondering how to approach her parents, reminisces in flashbacks how hard growing up and running away was for her, would be-painter mother Rose Mary, brother Brian and sister Lori.
Alternative Plot: Based on a memoir, four siblings must learn to take care of themselves as their responsibility-averse, free-spirit parents both inspire and inhibit them. When sober, the children's brilliant and charismatic father captured their imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Meanwhile, their mother abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want to take on the work of raising a family.
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