Marley Kurtz thinks his past is behind him. Comfortably estranged from his family and working at a bookstore in South Florida, he expects nothing interesting to ever happen to him again. But when a flirtatious author visits the store, and some friends and lovers from his past resurface, Marley is plunged into a world of problems he thought he had left behind. The return of his best friend, Missy, and the introduction of a volatile new substance, alcohol, kick off a series of painful events: the deaths of loved ones both old and young, the loss of trust between Marley and his longtime boyfriend Jesse, and the reemergence of some Kurtz family curses (alcoholism, abandonment, abuse) which affect his younger sister as well. Far from being free of the past, Marley and his friends are mired in it yet again; some will sink, some will swim, and some will merely float.