Housekeeping chronicles the experiences of Ruthie and her sister, Lucille who moved from one relatives house to another after the death of their mother. Ruthie and Lucille are sent to live with their grandmother, Sylvia after their mother committed suicide. The two children live with their grandmother until she dies a few years later.
After their grandmother Sylvia's death Ruthie and Lucille's aunts Nona and Lily come down to Fingerbone, Idaho to take care of them. However, the two find it difficult to survive Idaho's extreme winters and set about looking for another guardian for the two girls. The children are led to their Aunt Sylvie's care. Aunt Sylvie had left Fingerbone a little less than two decades ago but she eventually agrees to come back after Lily and Nona's insistent pleas. Aunt Sylvie does her best to provide for the two children.
Ruthie and Lucille are initially shocked by Aunt Sylvie's chaotic and disorganized world. Ruthie adjusts to her aunts ways but Lucille is unhappy with her aunt's unconventional parenting style and just wants to belong to a normal family like the rest of her peers. This difference in opinion separates the two sisters who were once so close. Over the years they come into their own identities, Ruthie remaining the same, gangly and introverted and Lucille blossoming into a social butterfly.
Lucille becomes increasingly unhappy living in Aunt Sylvie's house and she leaves. The courts begin investigating Aunt Sylvie and the living conditions of the children in her house after Lucille's leaving. After being investigated on her parenting and ability to provide she decides to go back to her old life as a drifter. This time however, she takes Ruthie with her and the two embark on an entirely new life away from Fingerbone. Lucille, on the other hand, moves to Boston to finally start a conventional and normal life but is increasingly lonely and distant.
