Once an idealistic and ambitious academic, Professor Lawrence Wetherhold (Dennis Quaid) lost his passion for teaching when he lost his wife. Hunkered-down behind his books, Wetherhold has forgotten how to connect, even with his daughter, the acerbically witty Vanessa (Ellen Page). Suddenly a head injury sends Wetherhold to the emergency room where his world spins out of his control. Forced to depend on his brother (Thomas Haden Church), a freeloading oddball, for transportation, Wetherhold is surprised to find himself attracted to his ER doctor and former ex-student (Sarah Jessica Parker) and begins to emerge from his isolation—with surprising consequences for the entire family.