When the crotchety, book-loving retiree J.P. returns in 1999 to his hometown on the Gulf Coast after forty years abroad, determined to right the wrongs inflicted decades earlier by his younger brother, who usurped his place in the family firm, he fortuitously finds that his daughter, from whom he has been separated since her infancy, has taken a job at the nearby sea lab. In attempting to re-establish a relationship with her he recounts his own past...