A distraught young woman called Natalie comes home to find a journal on her coffee table, accompanied by a note from its author. Initially angered by the gesture, she eventually becomes curious enough to read. What begins as a description of a young man experiencing loss, and subsequently leaving middle-class comfort for seclusion on a council estate, leads to a declaration of intent to sort his life out and a willingness to choose even suffering over the apathy that has come to characterize his existence. As the author, Marco, documents his progress, he quickly encounters welcome changes – a reunion with old friends and an unexpected romance with his intriguing new neighbor, Natalie. Through his dull job at a grocery store though, Marco inadvertently gets drawn into the troubles of Bernie, a lonely old man from his estate who becomes the victim of a vicious assault. As Marco and Natalie help Bernie on his road to recovery, their efforts bring them closer together. But a secret the old