In a small coastal town, contractor John Marino (Joe Pantoliano) struggles to understand his wife, Mary (Marcia Gay Harden), when she starts behaving strangely. After a doctor's visit, they discover she has schizophrenia. Nothing the doctors do helps, however, so John must live with his wife's incurable mental illness, while also helping their confused child Chris (Devon Gearhart) make sense of it. But as Mary's mental state declines, John finds an unexpected source of comfort in his son.