When we first meet him in the 1950's, Mr. Ives is a devoutly religous man.
Despite humble beginnings, he has fashioned for himself an enviable life as
a successful illustrator, happily married to a vivacious, artistic, woman, and
the father of two beautiful children. But Ives' perfect world is violated when his
seventeen-year-old son, Robert, is gunned down by a teenage thug at
Christmas, just months before the boy was to enter the seminary. Overwhelmed
by grief, Mr. Ives is threatened with a loss of faith in humankind. Part love
story of a man for his family and God and part meditation on how a person
can find peace in the aftermath of a shattering crisis.
