1st Sgt. Charles Monroe King, before he is killed in action in Baghdad, authors a journal for his son intended to tell him how to live a decent life despite growing up without a father.

During their last year at an Ivy League college in 1999, a group of friends and crew teammates' lives are changed forever when an army vet takes over as coach of their dysfunctional rowing team.

With his Alzheimer's becoming worse, Jimmy has only a day to live. He decides to die like he lived, with intention, humor and zest, and show his funeral guests that the art of living may actually be the art of dying.

Corey who works in her mom's antique shop, puts on a Christmas pageant in honor of her late father. When a man named Ryder visits her store, she wonders if she should have left town to follow her dream of becoming a theater director.