The film is the coming-of-age story of the child in the opening sequence, now a chicken delivery boy (although he hates chicken). Alienated from his father, and with an uneasy relationship with his (not gay-friendly) best friend, he meets a new customer. A lawyer going through a divorce, the customer is also alienated and lonely.

Some students at Runcie prep school form an elite club. The group is implicated in a cheating scandal and one of the club members dies mysteriously. Another member decides to try and discover the dangerous truth about Runcie.

Ruby, an aspiring romance novelist, joins a writers retreat in Tahoe, in order to win a lucrative book deal. But when Woody, the hotel owner, shows her the beauty of nature, Ruby wonders if she's been writing the wrong kinds of stories.

The parallel stories of two ordinary women - one, a single mother barely supporting her handicapped son, and the other, a working mom precariously balancing her family with a high-pressure career - on one extraordinary day. Each woman's life frays under the weight of her circumstances and spirals out of control. As police officers race to save them, pieces of a shattered puzzle fall into place - maybe this wasn't just a tragic car accident after all. Both women fight for their lives, but ultimately, only one will survive.

A young woman faces her future as a lawyer in a small New England town where the annual Christmas ice sculpting competition in which she and her father have always competed has been cancelled. Working to save the festival, she meets a reluctant sculptor who reignites her passion, in more ways than one.