A few days after his successful interview, Jack sits at his desk developing a follow-up story idea about the fragility of an athlete’s career. His old friend and former teammate Warren Mitchell, who co-anchors a sports broadcast on Fox, calls with unexpected news. Warren is moving to a new show called Good Sports, and he offers Jack the co-anchor position in New York.

Jack is ecstatic but decides not to tell Elizabeth about the audition in case he does not get the job. He calls her, lies about interviewing a high school quarterback, and asks her to pack for him. He invites her to a romantic dinner, which makes her suspicious. Elizabeth decides to attend the passionless women’s support group meeting that night. The next morning, as he is about to leave, Elizabeth has a flashback to their first kiss and asks to go with him, but he refuses, saying he will be too busy.

On the flight to New York, Jack enjoys first class and wishes he had told Elizabeth so she could have helped him prepare. A flight attendant recognizes and flirts with him, but thinking of past scandals, he politely declines. Warren meets him at the gate, and they drive away in Warren’s red Dodge Viper, reminiscing about their college days. Jack tells Warren that their daughters, Stephanie and Jamie, are both attending Georgetown University. Warren drops Jack at the Carlyle hotel with advice for the audition.

In his room, Jack feels jittery and calls Elizabeth but gets her answering machine. Looking out the window, he has an extended flashback to meeting her. As a junior football star flunking English, he sought out Elizabeth Rhodes for tutoring. He found her painting in the Arboretum and was stunned by her beauty. He charmed the initially dismissive Elizabeth, who was wearing an engagement ring, into agreeing to tutor him. Jack reflects that he fell in love quickly and promised her forever, but neither of them understood how long forever was.

Elizabeth attends her second meeting of the Women’s Passion Support Group, which she privately nicknames “passionless women.” Elizabeth laments that her husband has trouble staying focused, but doesn’t reveal who her husband is. During the meeting, Mina, another woman in the group, proudly announces that she drove to the meeting, saying she can go anywhere now, which deeply moves Elizabeth. Joey gives Elizabeth a cheap paintbrush left by a customer, seeing it as karma. Prompted by the group, Elizabeth shares that she was once a talented painter accepted into graduate programs but stopped after her children were born and could not restart. Holding the brush, she remembers how painting felt like flying.

After the meeting, she rushes home and finds her old box of art supplies. Looking out her bedroom window at the ocean view, she feels that this house is the one place she might be able to start painting again.

Jack returns home unexpectedly early. He finds Elizabeth in the bedroom gazing wistfully out the window. She begins to tell him about the meeting and her desire to paint, but he interrupts with his news. He announces he got the job co-hosting with Warren Mitchell, then reveals that they must move to New York. Elizabeth is furious, accusing him of putting himself first and not caring about her dreams. Jack responds that he can’t put her dreams first if she doesn’t even know what her dreams are. He tells her to step up to the plate if she wants a turn.

She walks outside to the cliff’s edge to think. When she returns, she tearfully agrees to move to New York for a while, making him promise to rent out the Oregon house rather than sell it so they can return someday. Jack then reveals he starts work Monday and she must pack alone. Elizabeth is appalled. He reminds her that they were happy in New York, which she denies, then uses their proximity to their daughters as a final argument.

Over their last weekend, Jack is ecstatic while Elizabeth feels like a condemned prisoner. During their final dinner, they are distant. Jack gives her a Fox Sports sweat suit sized too small. They make love, but for Elizabeth, the passion is gone. Lying awake, she reflects that her vision of growing old together in the house is gone, replaced by a blank void.

Two weeks after moving to New York, Jack feels at home in Manhattan and energized by his rising career. His show Good Sports is being heavily promoted, and he is becoming a celebrity again. Back in his messy corporate apartment, he thinks about Elizabeth’s imminent arrival and knows she will hate the impersonal space. He reflects that it has been easier to be apart from her and decides that after years of living the rural life she prefers, it is now his turn to live in the city.

He goes to a local bar for dinner. A beautiful young woman named Amanda, dressed for a wedding, sits at his table. She recognizes him from TV promotions and explains that she works in advertising. She complains about being dateless at her sister’s wedding and impulsively asks Jack to accompany her to the reception. Jack remembers his promise to Elizabeth not to revert to his old ways and politely declines. After Amanda leaves, he is trembling, feeling as if he just avoided a collision.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is nearly finished packing in Oregon. A potential renter, Sharon Solin, arrives to view the house. Elizabeth gives her a tour, but her composure breaks when they enter her bedroom and she sees the ocean view. She feels physical pain at the thought of leaving.

Her friend Meghann arrives with pizza and wine for support. After Sharon leaves, Elizabeth and Meghann talk. Elizabeth says Jack thinks the move will fix their marriage. She tells Meghann the support group encouraged her to paint again, but she feels she has no creative fire left. Meghann suggests New York might be good for Elizabeth. They lament their friendship being reduced to long-distance calls again, knowing it will not be the same.

On one of her last days in Oregon, Elizabeth makes a final trip to the town of Echo Beach to run errands. After finishing, she walks on the beach promenade and sits on a rock. She feels anonymous and is finally able to breathe deeply, realizing how much tension she has been holding. She dreads flying to New York to move into an apartment she did not choose with a husband she has forgotten how to love.

On the morning of her departure, she takes a final look at her house and the ocean, whispers goodbye to the house, and leaves in a taxi. After a long series of flights, Elizabeth arrives at the corporate apartment in New York at 6:15 pm. Jack is not home.

She finds the apartment impersonal and is disgusted by a large Barcalounger sofa with a built-in mini fridge, a gift from Warren. She notes that there is only one bedroom with no space for their daughters to visit. The kitchen refrigerator contains only beer, condiments, and a moldy sandwich. Jack has not unpacked the box of family photos and mementos she sent. Feeling it is her job to manage the details of their life, she unpacks the photos and places them around the apartment, but they fail to make the space feel like home.

Jack calls, welcoming her but immediately informing her that a meeting will make him late. When he says he loves her, she questions his sincerity and later realizes she did not say she loved him back for the first time she can remember. While waiting, she looks through a photo album, seeing her life as a series of moves for Jack’s career, feeling like a woman set on pause.

At 8:30, her cell phone rings. It is not Jack but her stepmother Anita, telling her that her father has had a stroke and she needs to come home immediately.

Elizabeth calls Jack, who says he will be home soon. He typically handles tragedy poorly, and she expects to be effectively alone. She calls her daughters, Stephanie and Jamie, to give them the news. By the time Jack arrives, Elizabeth has made all the travel arrangements for them to fly to Tennessee.

They fly first class to Nashville and take a cab to the hospital. At the hospital entrance, Elizabeth tells Jack she wants to see her father alone. In the ICU, a nurse named Deb Edwards recognizes Elizabeth. She finds her father, Edward Rhodes, in a glass-walled room, unconscious and surrounded by machines. He looks small and frail, unlike the vibrant man she knows.

Anita appears and tells her that the doctors think Edward is paralyzed on his left side. Elizabeth and Anita sit on opposite sides of the bed. The physician, Dr. Phillip Close, explains that Edward may or may not wake up. He confirms the paralysis and a risk of brain injury due to a weak heart.

After the doctor leaves, Edward suddenly wakes and speaks. Elizabeth feels excluded by the intimacy between her father and stepmother. Edward asks for a private moment with Elizabeth. He speaks cryptically about her mother Marguerite and Anita, saying he should have done things differently and that Anita paid the price for a secret he kept to protect Elizabeth’s memories. He tells Elizabeth she is the best part of him and makes her promise to take care of Anita. He tells her it is time and asks her to send Anita in.

Elizabeth reluctantly leaves and fetches Anita. She watches through the glass as a medical alarm sounds. Doctors and nurses rush in as Anita screams for help. The medical team tries to resuscitate him with paddles, but a moment later they stop. The machines are silent. Anita mouths the words he is gone to Elizabeth through the glass. Elizabeth enters the room and sees her father’s lifeless body, realizing his heart has given up.