Taylor lives on his own in the house where he was raised, his parents both gone. He travels far out of New Orleans each week to care for his wayward older brother Cody — their family, a tightly closed island of two. When his brother makes a decision that breaks open his life and leaves Taylor utterly alone, he emerges from the smallness of his existence and ventures into the chaos and swirl of the French Quarter and greater New Orleans, whose eclectic inhabitants, lost souls, and fellow travelers will either drown him or help him toward some new shore of possibility.