The setting opens on the quiet of nature which is quickly shattered when a young man named Cal runs through it. As he runs he picks up pace, going faster and faster until he is near collapse. This is his obsessive therapy after learning of his fiancé, Karen's, death in a mall shooting. Not knowing the details of her demise, Cal cuts himself off from the outside world, unwilling to hear any details of the shooting for fear of what he may do. But everything changes one day when Cal meets Maggie, a spunky imperfect young woman with a little girl named Emily, who were both at the mall that day. Emily is alive because a woman shielded her and took gunfire. Little do any of them know at first that this woman was Karen and that she died a hero. After Maggie discovers the truth it becomes an effort to bring it out to Cal before he completely collapses. She decides the best way to do this is to have her little girl reveal the truth to Cal in an emotional and revelatory climax.