Seventeen-year-old Parker Warren has always had the one thing most of his friends don't: a father. But when his father, Jack, drowns in Haywood Lake, Parker feels like he's sinking, too. He tries to throw himself back into his normal routine - going to school, working at his family's coffeehouse, and pining away for his friend's girlfriend, Sarah - all in the hope that living a normal life (or pretending to) will keep him afloat. It might just work, too, if it weren't for the fact that his mother wanders around in a robe and that his eleven-year-old brother has reverted to some very old habits, like setting up camp in his parents' bedroom. To make matters even worse, his long-lost grandfather, John Warren, shows up as if out of nowhere, having abandoned Parker's father when he was just seventeen years old. While Parker's mother and his little brother immediately accept John into their lives, Parker is more resistant. Suspicious even. Slowly, he begins to form a fragile bond with John - or the "old man," as he calls him - only to find out that John has been keeping something from them, a secret that will test their strength and their love.