When Phillip Carver is asked by his sisters to help avert their widower father's impending marriage to a younger women, he is forced to confront his domineering siblings, a controlling patriarch, and a flood of memories from his deeply troubled past.

Newspaper copyboy Victor Vollmer sets out from Memphis to spread the ashes of Mr. Spiro, his friend and mentor, at the mouth of the Mississippi River, and with the help of new friend Philomene he may meet the challenge.