Successful children's writer and illustrator Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) invites 16-year-old writing intern Eddie (Jon Foster) to summer in the privileged beach community of East Hampton, where he lives with his beautiful wife Marion (Kim Basinger) and their young daughter Ruth. Ted and Marion are still recovering from the death of their two teenage sons some years before and as a result their marriage is under great strain. Eddie, invited for the summer largely because of the physical resemblance he bears to one of the boys, is inevitably drawn into their deteriorating relationship, becoming an unwitting yet willing pawn and, ultimately, the catalyst in the transformation of their lives.