How to Walk Away

Margaret Jacobsen, a recently graduated MBA student, has always been terrified of flying. On Valentine's Day, her boyfriend of three years, Chip Dunbar, drives her to a private airfield and takes her up in a small Cessna. Despite her fear, Margaret climbs into the cockpit, sensing a proposal. Chip proposes mid-flight, and she says yes, slipping on his grandmother's engagement ring. On the return flight, a crosswind destabilizes the plane during landing. It cartwheels across the runway, loses a wing, and crashes into a ditch on Margaret's side, dousing the cockpit with fuel.

Chip escapes uninjured, but Margaret's legs are pinned and her seatbelt jammed. He leaves to find help despite her pleas. A brief fire sears her neck and arm before firefighters extinguish it. She is airlifted to a trauma hospital, where surgeons discover a burst fracture of her L1 vertebra, an incomplete spinal cord injury. They stabilize her spine with metal rods, and a plastic surgeon grafts donor skin onto her burned neck. After a week in the ICU, Margaret transfers to inpatient rehabilitation.

In rehab, her mother, Linda, decorates the room but cannot look at Margaret's burned face. The facial burns should heal, but the neck grafts will leave permanent scars. No one has told Margaret she is paralyzed until Chip, drunk at six in the morning, stumbles in and blurts that she will never walk again. Margaret vomits. Her father, Cliff, takes Chip home. Her new physical therapist, Ian Moffat, is a brusque Scotsman who insists she attend the gym regardless of how she feels. Her parents confirm the paralysis: Swelling may be blocking nerve signals, and six weeks will reveal permanent damage.

Margaret's estranged older sister, Kitty, appears with a suitcase. They have not spoken in three years, since Kitty left after a confrontation with their mother. Margaret turns her away repeatedly, but Kitty returns each night with baked goods until Margaret relents. Kitty reveals she has been sober for three years and runs a salon in Brooklyn. Her nightly presence anchors Margaret through nightmares and bleak days. Margaret regains bladder and bowel function independently, a significant milestone.

In the gym, Ian conducts a muscle assessment revealing devastating deficits below the knee. Margaret fills the silence with monologues about her despair. One day, Ian sits her up, meets her eyes, and says: "It's the trying that heals you. That's all you have to do. Just try." Those words transform her approach. She researches spinal cord injuries obsessively. Kit coaxes her into singing again by mangling "Let It Be" until Margaret cannot resist. Meanwhile, the company where she had a dream job gives the position to someone else.

Margaret's father hires Ian for extra evening sessions. Away from his vindictive supervisor, Myles, Ian transforms into a warm, playful presence. He takes Margaret to the therapy pool at night, where she walks across the shallow end for the first time since the crash, the water carrying her feet through the motions. She cries and smiles at once.

Kitty forces out a family secret: She had her DNA tested years ago and discovered she has no Scandinavian heritage, making it impossible that their proudly Norwegian father is her biological parent. Their mother gave Kitty an ultimatum to stay silent or leave. Kitty left. Margaret vows never to tell their father.

Chip re-proposes with the charred ring, and Margaret puts the engagement "on hold." Soon after, Chip's mother, Evelyn Dunbar, suggests Margaret release him, and Chip confesses he slept with his ex-girlfriend Tara. Margaret throws the ring at him. Ian confronts Chip, then carries Margaret to the hospital roof, where they talk openly. He reveals that he and Myles once competed for the same woman, Kayla, fueling Myles's vendetta. On the roof, Margaret realizes she can still feel physical arousal.

For Margaret's birthday, Kit arranges a one-night trip to the family's rustic lake cabin. Ian comes along and carries Margaret around the property. That night, he trips while carrying her, and they land on the floor in the dark. Margaret kisses him. They kiss passionately until Kit and Kit's boyfriend, Fat Benjamin, walk in. Ian pulls away, insisting Margaret's feelings are a product of trauma rather than real attraction.

The next morning, Margaret's right big toe wiggles on command for the first time, but subsequent progress stalls. She requests a new PT to create distance from Ian and works obsessively on her own. In her final week, she collapses on the gym mat, accepting she will not walk again. Ian finds her and holds her in silence.

On Margaret's last night, Kit throws a Valentine's Day party with karaoke in the rehab gym. Margaret belts out "Best of My Love," and Kit dangles mistletoe over Margaret and Ian. He stands Margaret up from her wheelchair and kisses her in front of the room. Myles walks in, fires Ian on the spot, and threatens his work visa. Ian leaves after telling Margaret, "Happy Valentine's Day."

The next morning, their mother reveals the full truth about Kitty's paternity: Kitty's biological father was Derin Buruk, a Turkish exchange student Linda had a brief affair with in high school. Cliff overhears the confession from the hallway and leaves in silence. Margaret moves home with her mother. Ian visits to say goodbye, revealing that his fiancée, Kayla, was shot and killed in a mass shooting three years ago. Margaret confesses she loves him, but Ian insists her feelings are trauma bonding and returns to Scotland, leaving a wrapped birthday present.

Months of grief follow. Margaret briefly considers ending her life but gives herself one year, marking each day on a calendar. Kit pushes Margaret to pursue her idea for a summer camp for children in wheelchairs. The project consumes Margaret. She and her mother collaborate on plans, discovering a shared love of design. By day 300, Margaret signs a contract on land and tears up the calendar. She names the project Camp Hope.

A year after the crash, an invitation arrives for Chip's wedding to Tara in Bruges, Belgium. Kit reveals Ian has been emailing her weekly to check on Margaret and devises a plan to reunite their estranged parents at the event. On the plane, Margaret opens Ian's birthday present: a silver necklace stamped with "Courage." In Bruges, Kit falls ill with what proves to be pregnancy and cannot attend, so Margaret goes with her mother. She ends up on a water taxi to the reception, seated across from the newlyweds. Ian sprints down stone steps in a tuxedo and leaps aboard. He drops to his knees and confesses he lied: He has thought about Margaret every day. Kit orchestrated his arrival. He tells her he loves her "with a longing that I can barely contain" and kisses her as the boat glides under a lantern-lit bridge. Margaret spots her parents together on a bridge above, reconciled.

Ten years later, Margaret and Ian are married and run Camp Hope. They have twins. Margaret never walked again, but she built a life worth living. Kitty tattooed a folk art flower garden over her burn scars. Margaret's parents reconciled; her father read bedtime stories at camp until lung cancer took his life. Margaret's guiding philosophy: "The greater our capacity for sorrow becomes, the greater our capacity for joy." Camp Hope's motto, printed on every T-shirt: THAT'S HOW WE ROLL.