Michael Taylor (Ryan Reynolds) is an author who has channeled his painful childhood memories into his novels. With some reluctance, he is flying home for his mother Lisa’s (Julia Roberts) college graduation. After a lifetime of putting everyone else first, stroking her husband’s (Willem Dafoe) massively insecure ego and raising her children in spite of that, it’s Lisa’s turn. What should be a moment of great celebration turns into a tragic reunion when Lisa is killed in a car accident, leaving father, son and family to pick up the pieces.

While preparing for their mother’s funeral, memories are relived and secrets are revealed which will test the family bond. After a childhood of hiding in his father’s shadows, protected by his mother, Michael must confront his past and find an understanding of his family, his father and himself.

Susan is a scientist. Michael is a chef. He takes a break from the kitchen heat in the alleyway below her apartment; she smokes a cigarette at the window above. He calls up for a light – the first spark in their passionate affair.

But the world is about to change dramatically. As love turns Susan and Michael’s lives upside down, people across the globe begin to experience strange symptoms, which first affect the emotions then the senses, one by one.

Everything changes. But people laugh, they cry, they eat and drink, they go about their daily business. They adapt, they change, they cope, they live and they love – because life must go on. And so it does.