While John, a young soldier, is home on a temporary leave, he meets and falls in love with Savannah, a college girl on her spring break. Savannah promises to write to John when he is sent overseas. Over the next seven years, the couple continues to be separated by John's increasingly dangerous deployments. Though they meet only sporadically, they continue to stay in touch through love letters that eventually bring fateful consequences.

Walter Vale is a widower who teaches economics at a Connecticut university. He lives alone and is no longer motivated by his work. In New York to present a paper at a conference, he goes to the apartment that he has not visited in some time, but has kept since his wife was alive, only to discover a young couple living there. Despite their great cultural differences, Walter befriends Tarek, a Syrian citizen and drummer, and gradually builds a friendship...

Sarah has finally agreed to marry her boyfriend Jeff, but isn't sure if marriage is what she wants. Now she's on her way home to attend her sister's wedding, which means spending a lot of time with the tennis-obsessed Pasadena family that she's never felt quite a part of. It isn't until Sarah stumbles into a well-kept family secret that she starts to question her roots and sets off in search of the man who may have the answers she has been looking...