On a mission to get God's attention in hopes that God will heal his sister from terminal cancer, a young boy begins answering the prayers left by church members in the pastor's prayer box after the pastor throws them away, jaded by his own suffering.

Paul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of two girls; and Jack Jordan, a born-again ex-con, are brought together by a terrible accident that changes their lives.