As if the world wasn't complicated enough.

Maladies is a wise-cracking drama about three characters on the fringe of society pushing and pulling at the bonds that bind them. Drawn together by their creative connection but repelled by their individual idiosyncrasies, James, Catherine and Patricia struggle to reach an elusive equilibrium in their domestic life. As James's grasp on reality begins to loosen, however, he becomes preoccupied by the fear that when he goes he'll leave his life's work--a sweeping memoir--behind him. To soothe his growing unease, he talks Catherine into pact: if one person dies, the other will finish his/her work. But simple promises are never as simple as they seem.