In a dream-like pre-credit sequence, Louisa, a black-clad widow, descends a pink staircase inside a pink mansion. She is followed by pallbearers carrying a pink coffin. The pallbearers slip and drop the coffin, which slides down the stairs, leading into the opening titles.
Louisa wants to give her $211 million to the U.S. government Internal Revenue Service, who believes it is an April Fools’ Day joke. Sobbing to her unstable psychiatrist, Dr. Stephanson, Louisa tries to explain why she wants to give away her money, leading to a series of flashbacks, interspersed with fantasy sequences.
Louisa describes her childhood as a young, idealistic girl. Her money-grubbing mother pushed Louisa to marry rich local business owner Leonard Crawley. Louisa instead marries Edgar Hopper, a poor shop owner who, inspired by Henry David Thoreau, prefers a simple life. They are happily poor until the jilted Leonard arrives and ridicules their rustic lifestyle, humiliating Edgar and motivating him to achieve success.
Edgar transforms his small store into a tremendous empire, neglecting Louisa, ruining Crawley, and eventually overworking himself to an early death.
A grieving Louisa travels to Paris where she meets Larry Flint, an impoverished avant-garde artist. They fall in love, marry, and live a picturesque bohemian lifestyle. Larry invents a crane-like machine that converts eclectic sounds into paint strokes on canvas. One day, Louisa plays classical music that produces a beautiful painting, resulting in Larry’s first major art sale. Larry builds larger cranes and sells many more paintings, making him a successful artist. One night, two petulant cranes turn on their creator and beat him to death.
Louisa, richer and more depressed, prepares to return to the US. When she misses her flight, famed business tycoon Rod Anderson Jr. offers her a lift on his private jet. They marry shortly after and live luxuriously. Fearful of losing him like her first two husbands, Louisa convinces Rod to retire to a small farm similar to his boyhood home. After sharing a jug with a few locals, an inebriated Rod mistakenly attempts to milk a bull, which kicks him through the barn wall, leaving Louisa widowed once again.
Now fantastically wealthy, Louisa wanders the country. In a small-town café, she meets Pinky Benson who, for over a decade, has performed nightly dressed as a clown. Management loves Pinky’s corny musical act because it never distracts the customers from eating and drinking. The two fall in love and idyllically live aboard Pinky’s run-down houseboat on the Hudson River. On Pinky’s birthday, Louisa suggests he perform without his usual time-consuming clown make-up and costume so they will not be late for his party after the show.
Without his clown getup, the customers notice that Pinky sings and dances beautifully. Virtually overnight, Pinky is a famous Hollywood star. He neglects Louisa and becomes so arrogant and self-centered that he has the entire mansion painted pink so fans will know it is his. At his film premiere, despite being warned, Pinky insists on greeting his excited fans. They become frenzied and trample Pinky to death.
After hearing Louisa’s story, Dr. Stephanson proposes marriage, claiming to be the simple man she wants. She declines, which she declares is progress in her recovery. Stephanson accidentally presses the switch that raises the movable psychiatric couch about ten feet. Sitting on the edge, he falls off and is knocked unconscious, leaving Louisa stranded on top. The janitor enters and helps Louisa down. She is shocked it is Leonard Crawley, who lost everything after Edgar Hopper ruined his business. Leonard claims he is happy and credits Louisa and Thoreau for making his life “successful” because it is simple.
Leonard and Louisa marry and enjoy a bucolic life on a farm with their four children. The story ends when Leonard, plowing a field, is distracted while reading Thoreau and apparently strikes oil after the tractor tire grinds into the ground. Louisa is distraught, believing her curse has struck again until oil company representatives arrive and say that Leonard punctured their pipeline. Leonard and Louisa rejoice, as they are still poor but happy.
Watch What a Way to Go! Full Movie Free now and experience the rollercoaster of life depicted in this heartwarming tale!