After his father was killed by terrorists at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, and his mother killed by a mugger a year before, Brendan is determined to make sense of the world, to see if life has any real meaning. He shuns a carpentry career and embarks upon the study of philosophy to seek truth in everyday existence. He lives in a rustic cabin with no electricity on a lake in Maine, but becomes intrigued by a waitress named Cosette, and together they tour Canada, having no idea who will be waiting for them after they get back-Brendan's wife. She attacks Cosette in a bloody catfight which lands Cosette in the hospital.
As a result of the many twists and turns of that summer, Brendan-through Cosette-discovers the truth he'd been searching for, a truth embodied in the acceptance that everything has a price to pay, including happiness itself.