The increasingly gaping divide between the world views of Baby Boomers and those of their post-Generation X children is often played for laughs these days, and certainly there are plenty of funny moments in “The Best We Could (a family tragedy),” Emily Feldman’s absorbing, precociously humane account of an aging man’s relationship with his 30-something daughter.

Ms. Feldman is around the same age as Ella, who accompanies her father, Lou, on a cross-country road trip, ostensibly for the purpose of adopting a new dog after his beloved pet dies. For roughly the first half of this one-act play, you may be lulled into thinking it’s yet another winking tale of family dysfunction viewed through the lens of generational conflict.