Alan, an intellectual property rights attorney slugging it out for a corporate master, brings his 86 year old mother home from the clinic where she was given strict orders to stay off her fractured foot. They and Fran's best friends Isabel and Ignacio all agree she will need home care. Isabel, always the mover and the shaper, calls her friend Felicity, a woman of Puerto Rican heritage, as a candidate. Fran and Felicity hit it off, but when it comes out that Felicity is homeless and is rumored to have had a history of drugs, sex, and alcohol, opinions heat up and what seemed a simple solution becomes a quandary.

Before she became homeless, Felicity had been soup chef for a local cafe that Fran was particularly fond of. That and her easy laugh is enough to lead Fran to hire Felicity as caregiver. When Alan objects, Fran contrives to leave the two of them alone so Alan can conduct an interview. As his line of questioning develops, they discover common interests. When the conversation leads to Felicity's former job and Alan discovers that her personal recipes were probably stolen by the chain that bought the cafe's concept, he has a change of heart and decides to file suit on her behalf. 

Soup is last in a series of plays following the life of Alan Cravick. The plays can stand alone, but they are linked by small references and by Alan's progression as he grows from 19 to 46. The first play is Risotto (set in 1971) and the second is Fried Prawns (1978).