An accident at an isolated railroad crossing leaves Tee Jessup in a coma. He awakens to find that everything he cherished in life has been taken from him and a Catholic priest at his bedside with written instructions left by his parents. Tee resists, but without a home or a job, he is forced to abandon the ranching life he loves and to travel paths he never imagined to recover some of what he has lost. When he fails repeatedly in his new urban world, wife Sarah takes their son and leaves. Tee thinks she has left because of his failures until he discovers the more sinister reason.