A man is trying to hold his family together. He has suffered great loss. He is truly trying to get a handle on life but is plagued by ghosts. Whether they are real or not is not the issue. It ultimately doesn't matter. What we have here is a budding relationship with a fragile writer who begins to see him for the gentle soul that he is. While the writer's workshop he is assisting with goes on, he tries to keep his feet on the ground, despite his pain. He is accosted by a pretentious ass of a writer, greatly admired by the public, but incapable of an original idea. His audience are young, romance oriented women. The man turns to the young woman for aide in his struggles, but has no confidence in himself and sees himself as an intruder, taking advantage of her vulnerability. This is a quiet movie with bittersweet results. The children, especially, are multi-dimensional in their own struggles with mortality.