Who do you love? How will you die? Neighbors Cable Malone and Carson Johnson could not be more different, but both meet their daily lives with dread. Carson, a quiet, bullied teen keeping another boy's dark secret, drags himself to school where he knows he will fumble his relationship with his girlfriend and receive new bruises and taunts at the hands of his classmates. Cable, a gruff old man, spends his days waiting to die in the company of his ancient dog, Beau and mourning the loss of the wife. When Carson attempts a small gesture of kindness towards Cable the results end in tragedy, sending Cable into a darker, lonelier state and compounding Carson's feelings of powerlessness. But then, somehow, the old man and the teenage boy form a friendship that saves them both.