Stanley phillips john cusack takes care of his two young daughters, heidi and dawn, while his wife grace serves overseas in iraq as a member of the u.s. Army. When stan receives devastating news about his wife, he has no idea how to tell the couple's little girls. Not yet willing to have them face the awful truth, stan and the girls go on a spontaneous road trip that takes them to florida and to his own boyhood home. Along the way he shields them from the news about their mother until heidi and dawn sense the truth. It's a story of a father's love and courage in a time of family tragedy.