Taylor Colby and his childhood sweetheart Laura abandoned their Nova Scotia coastal village home for a life in the high-octane world of rock music in California. Now after Laura's drug-related death Taylor has returned to his roots to live once again with his noble but isolated boat-builder father. Complicating matters further Taylor's mother who has been battling cancer attempts to reconcile with both her husband and son whom she deserted decades earlier. As Taylor grapples with family dysfunction he becomes involved with Jillian a feminist professor from Philadelphia and her troubled twelve-year-old son who are also on the run from the past they can't seem to escape.