The film is set in an exclusive beach community on Long Island, where children's book author and artist Ted Cole (Jeff Bridges) lives with his wife Marion (Kim Basinger) and their young daughter Ruth (Elle Fanning), who usually is supervised by her nanny Alice. Their home is filled with photographs of the couple's teenaged sons, who were killed in an automobile accident; the tragedy left Marion deeply depressed and her marriage in a shambles. The one shared experience that holds the family together is a ritualistic daily viewing of a home gallery of family photographs of the deceased sons.