Ben (Patrick Swayze) and Lulu (Melanie Griffith) were one-time college sweethearts who shared an intense passionate affair that circled around Lulu's untreated mental health condition, a condition which eventually leads to her hospitalization and their separation. Now Ben is a successful professional television writer in Hollywood in a personally distant relationship with his psychiatrist wife Claire (Penelope Ann Miller). Lulu leaves her treatment facility, a group home, and seeks out a reluctant Ben to reveal that 15 years ago they had a son whom she placed in adoption. Determined to meet him on his 16th birthday, Lulu asks Ben to join her on a cross-country road trip to find their son. Bound at first by his need to protect Lulu from herself, Ben's uncertainty about the free-spirited Lulu is replaced with tender memories of their love affair and her vulnerable health. As they journey, Ben's current life is shared through Claire, who has flown out to intercept the pair. Tensions between the three culminate with Claire telling Lulu about Ben and Claire's son who died from leukemia the year before. A shaken Lulu calls to Ben, with Claire present, to open up about his son who died and the son Martin (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) they are about to meet. All three characters connect, and in the process, Ben rediscovers his heart.