故事发生在20世纪康涅狄格州的三河市，多米尼克（马克·鲁法洛MarkRuffalo饰）是一个陷入了水深火热之中的男人。他曾经拥有一个幸福美满的家庭，却因为刚刚出生的孩子的意外死亡而导致了和妻子之间感情的破裂，不仅如此，多米尼克的弟弟托马斯（马克·鲁弗洛MarkRuffalo饰）患有妄想型精神分裂症，常常会做出伤害自己的举动，需要身为哥哥的多米尼克处处提防。　　在弟弟最终还是自杀身亡之后，多米尼克决定从自己的血脉中寻找答案，于是开始研究在很早之前就离开了他的父亲的真实身份，由此发现了自己家族所隐瞒的有关遗产的秘密。

“I'm not a smart man, particularly. But one day, at long last, I stumbled from the dark woods of my own, and my family's, and my country's past, holding in my hands these truths. That love grows from forgiveness. That from destruction comes renovation. That the evidence of God exists in our connections to one another. This much, at least, I've figured out. I know this much is true.”