As a youngster, Jake witnessed the sight of his best friend lying dead and his father wielding a shotgun. Trying to gain closure, Jake returns home to find the truth about what really happened that fateful night.

Jake (Scott Cooper) returns home looking for answers to a tragic night, seventeen years earlier, that left his best friend Marco (Craig Sheffer) dead and his father (Tommy Hinkley) holding the gun. Jake keeps his return a secret, spying on his alcoholic mother (Theresa Russell) from the shadows. A gifted painter, Jake moves into a studio owned by Catherine (Gabrielle Anwar), a beautiful and candid young woman with two children. When Jake begins to fall in love with Catherine, his carefully contained past erupts, forcing him to re-examine what really happened seventeen years ago.