A story about a young man, named Nick Andrews, who unwittingly becomes a victim of a drunk driving accident, while using a pay-phone at a corner gas station. He fights for his life, while rescuers struggle to free him and get him to the nearest Trauma Center, forty-five minutes away, requiring the Center's Helicopter to transport him quickly once freed. His family and friends struggle to deal with the tragic loss of his leg, feeling conflicting emotions just as Nick himself does. The story moves along, following his recovery and eventual release from the hospital's rehabilitation unit, where he re-learns how to perform simple tasks that prove to be much more complicated from a wheel-chair.

Nick finds out his family life is strained further when his parents, who both encouraged him in the beginning during the first uncertain days, are possibly about divorce. After having to accept his father's preoccupation making his career more important then being involved in his daily life, Nick feels disheartened and becomes depressed. After his parents divorce, he slips into a rut and soon finds himself numbing his hurts through using alcohol and various drugs. He moves out into a apartment with a couple of good friends, forgetting for awhile, how disappointed he felt at his inability to walk again using a prosthetic limb.

He gets a computer for his twenty-third birthday from his mother and soon finds himself chatting online, enjoying the anonymity of being just a nickname, instead of a person who is seen more as a object to be pitied then related to. He spends more and more time chatting, getting to know a group of regular chatters. He is invited to a get-together and after confessing his physical limitations to several of his online acquaintances, is excited when the offer is even more ardently offered. He also decides to give walking another try, greatly excited by advances made in new technologies that finally allow him to break free from his chair.

He is devastated by the untimely deaths of his two roommates, who were out driving under the influence of Cocaine and Heroine, slamming into a tree at ninety miles an hour. Feeling very distraught, Nick moves back home with his mother and his younger sister, who's already in college. He feels regretful for how he'd wasted too much time on getting wasted. The loss of his friends wakes him up to the facts of life, motivating him to take charge of himself. He wonders what he could do to make a living and which direction to take his life in. As the date of the party nears, Nick becomes more confident on his new limb, deciding to leave his chair at home, when he boards a plane headed for Ohio.

He has a wonderful time and after meeting a young woman named Lucinda, that he had grown close to over the last months, who returns his romantic interest despite his disfigurement, Nick begins to think, once again, about starting his own family. They continue their relationship, discovering that they have so much in common and they discuss meeting again after her final exams. Lucinda stays with Nick for an entire month and his mother is quite impressed with her, approving of their union, allowing them to continue living with her, so Lucinda transfers her credits to USF to be with Nick. He and Lucinda both attend school together and when Lucinda graduates, they marry.

The story moves along through their honeymoon and then the marriage of his sister, Laura, to her fiancé Don. They live together in Boston and after returning home from their wedding, Nick and his family are confronted with the tragic news of his father's death during a car jacking in Chicago, where he had moved to several years prior to his death. A few weeks later, a letter appears for Nick, from his father, meant to explain his actions and apologize for not being as supportive as Nick deserved. Its appearance both upsets and comforts Nick, further motivating him to be a better Father then he had. Lucinda gets a teaching job and Nick continues college, aiming to become a prosthetist so he can reach out to help others as he was helped.

Nick is excited when the man responsible for getting him back on his feet, offers him an opportunity to apprentice with him at one of his offices. Nick learns much and is overjoyed when he learns that he is soon to become a Father. The story follows the births of their first child Christopher, their second child Rebecca and finally the birth of their third child Sally. He is overjoyed to become a Father, but the joy is shaken up when his mother learns she doesn't have long to live, because she has developed inoperable Cancer. The whole family is horribly upset and has no choice, but to sit by helplessly watching her deteriorating.

He is deeply disturbed when she suffers a stroke one night and she is never quite the same. She is admitted to a nursing home and dies shortly thereafter. Nick and the whole family attend her funeral, paying their last respects to the loving Evelyn Andrews. Nick reflects on his long journey learning to accept himself and other people's perceptions of him. He is proud of the way he'd turned his life around, helping so many people get back on their feet and grateful his mother lived long enough to see all of her grandchildren thriving. The novel closes with him wondering about the future and what it might hold for them all.