When middle-aged house cleaner Buck Enderly takes on an eccentric new client, he gets roped into locating her estranged son. Buck tracks down the disturbed young man but in another twist of fate becomes an accomplice to a violent crime. Buck must then decide whether to hide the truth from his family or come clean with everyone and move on with his life

A repressed philosophy professor, Dr. John Jorissen, is employed at Ridgemont College, a small liberal arts school in the American Midwest. He teaches an introductory course and is writing a book on renowned Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Haunted by a long-buried transgression and the sudden return of its victim, he descends into a crisis of guilt, desire, and spiritual reckoning.