Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in South Africa, believes he understands the trajectory of his life, with the usual markers of vocation and marriage. But when he's diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery, prescribed treatment that will leave him radioactive, for a period a danger to others, he begins to question... As Paul recuperates in the garden of his childhood home, he enters an unthinkable existence and another kind of illumination --- a process that will irrevocably change not only his life but the lives of his wife and parents. The consequence of this trip is the final surprise in this extraordinary exploration of passionate individual existences.