With the death first of his wife and then of his best friend, David Robert Bainbridge has lost his moorings. He returns to the place where they all met, and settling at an outdoor table in his favorite café in Berkeley, California, he takes a yellow pad and ballpoint pen from his bag and begins to write. He delves through layers of memory, sifting and searching for a meaning to sustain him through his losses. But life intrudes. The child who demands his attention shows him the opening into a new life where old loves are deepened through new ones and people are waiting to be called by name.