After two and a half years abroad, Taylor MacLennan decides to accept an invitation from his mother and return home to the small northeastern resort town where he grew up. The reunion with his over-achieving brother, Robert, and his wife Christine, who was also Taylor's high school girlfriend and first love, rekindles resentments that Taylor still carries. Fearing that Taylor might leave again, his mother reveals the real reason for her invitation, her hope that he might make amends with his domineering father whose failing health concerns the whole family. Bolstered by his girlfriend, Pamela and the friendship of an old flame he once betrayed, Taylor finds the courage to face his father and learns that his sickness has progressed much further than the rest of the family knows. Trapped between the responsibilities he can not deny and memories he can not reconcile, Taylor comes to realize that he has defined himself by a history the rest of the family has outgrown and begins to ...