Dr bob shushan sutherland has spent his life working to help those less fortunate than himself. But his job as director of the british columbian centre for the mentally and physically disabled has led the workaholic shushan unwittingly to neglect his family, including his wife mary mcdonnell and especially the needs of his own son, brian whitford. But shushan’s life changes dramatically the day he suffers a heart attack at the wheel of his car. His unlikely saviour is james jones fox, a dishevelled and disturbed young man who works as a janitor at the centre. Shushan now has a burning new mission in life to look behind james’s ‘mask’ of anti social behaviour and help him to find both respect and a rewarding place in society – and to track down the one person whom james really needs the father who abandoned him many years ago.