Fred, a young man in his twenties who avoids responsibility, has his life upended when his mother asks him to leave home. He ends up in his successful older brother’s guest room in North Carolina during a hot summer. There, he befriends Donnie, an unexpectedly ambitious but clumsy person who often hinders Fred's own goals. Still hoping to become a fiction writer, Fred’s plans are complicated by a new relationship with Mary, a spirited young woman. The people Fred meets – including an elderly man with memory problems and a curious child – force him to confront his own choices and the life he’s accepting. Through these experiences, Fred begins to understand who he wants to be and what it takes to get there.
