A tragic, beautiful and awe inspiring story on the complexities of love and commitment in a family torn apart when faced by an unexpected tragedy. Ryan Reynolds, William Dafoe, Emily Watson and Julia Roberts star.
Lisa Taylor, the wife of a college professor, Charlie, living in the Midwest. As the tale opens, the aging couple are proud parents of two grown and reasonably successful children, Michael and Ryne. Then tragedy strikes: not long after Michael arrives in town (visiting from Manhattan), Lisa perishes in a fatal car accident, leaving the family bereft of its matriarch.
As the devastated Taylors feebly attempt to cope with their loss, tensions resurface that have long boiled beneath the surface between Charlie and Michael; meanwhile, Michael's estranged wife, Kelly, turns up at the funeral to pay her respects to Lisa and gradually begins making amends with Michael.
When Michael announces to the family that he's planning to publish a memoir about his childhood, Lisa's younger sister, Jane, grows horrified that it will unearth devastating long-buried skeletons from the family's past; moreover, it seems that prior to her death, Lisa was guarding one major secret of her own that lingers just out of view and threatens to destroy everyone's sense of familial security when it finally comes to light.