Can you ever really go home again? That's the question that confronts acclaimed novelist Nick Garrett when he returns home -- after being away for ten years -- to take up an offer to teach a one-day course at Dufresne College in his native Knights Ridge, Massachusetts. But once back, Nick finds the response to his homecoming less than effusive; he's had no contact with family or friends since leaving, and some resent how they were portrayed as characters in his novel.