'Every family is a ghost story ...' As a child, Charley Benetto was told by his father, 'You can be a mama's boy or a daddy's boy, but you can't be both.' So he chooses his father, only to see him disappear when Charley is on the verge of adolescence. Decades later, Charley is a broken man. His life has been destroyed by alcohol and regret. He loses his job. He leaves his family. He hits rock bottom after discovering he won't be invited to his only daughter's wedding. And he decides to take his own life. Charley makes a midnight ride to his small hometown: his final journey. But as he staggers into his old house, he makes an astonishing discovery. His mother -- who died eight years earlier -- is there, and welcomes Charley home as if nothing had ever happened. What follows is the one seemingly ordinary day so many of us yearn for: a chance to make good with a lost parent, to explain the family secrets and to seek forgiveness.
主人公中年男子查理在生活中处处碰壁:他是个不成功的退役棒球运动员,婚姻中途触礁,与女儿缺乏沟通。当他发现就连女儿的婚礼也不愿邀请他参加、自己成了个彻头彻尾的孤家寡人时,心理彻底崩溃,驾车自杀。当他在生与死的交界地带徘徊时,突然看见了多年前死去的母亲。母亲(或者说是母亲的幻象、幽灵……)领着他回到过去,在往昔岁月里再逗留一天。在这一天里,母亲带着查理去拜访了几个人,有的对他的生活产生过重大影响,有的却全然陌生;在这个过程中,查理对自己这一生的回忆穿插其中,有些埋藏在记忆深处的家庭秘密被渐渐揭开,所有这一切,构成了令查理回顾、自省乃至醍醐灌顶的旅程。对于家庭和人生,查理在这一天里的感悟,要比他过去的大半生还要多。这一天结束之后,母亲消失,查理被抢救成功,重返人间,以积极而豁达的态度度过余生。
让某个辞世已久的亲人,陪你再过一天。只有一天。如果可以如愿,你需不需要这样的机会?
机会,在一个尴尬的时刻,落到了查尔斯·贝奈特头号上。这位退役棒球运动员在挫折与酒精的消磨中,已经找不到任何活下去的理由——事业碰壁,婚姻破裂,酗酒成瘾,众叛亲离,就连女儿的婚礼都不愿意让他露面……查尔斯起了轻生之念,他以为只要一辆高速运行的汽车,一次忘我的狂奔,就可以挥手作别,不带走一片云彩。然而,电光火石中,他的肉身徘徊在此境与彼岸之间;恍然苏醒,他竟然看到了多年前就意外去世的母亲。
母亲引他走进昨天。昨天是一个又一个熟悉的陌生人,一场又一场角度诡异的悲喜剧,一串又一串彼此纠缠的心结。沿着母亲指的路,查尔斯的归宿究竟通往何方?一日顿悟,是否足以改变一生?