Ryan keeps a rose plant on his windowsill that he considers sacred, having mixed his late mother’s ashes into its soil. For years, it blooms each May, becoming his way of keeping her memory alive.
His strained relationship with his father, Larry, worsens when Larry arrives unexpectedly and lies about being sick just to stay with him. Ryan agrees to host him, but tensions quickly rise as old wounds about his mother’s illness and absence resurface.
One day, Larry accidentally knocks over the rose pot, destroying the plant and unknowingly mixing the ashes with ordinary debris. Ryan is devastated and explodes in grief and anger, forcing his father to leave.
Years later, after Larry’s death, Ryan begins to process his grief differently. He writes a letter to his father at the funeral he doesn’t attend, reflecting on loss, memory, and forgiveness. He realizes his mother lives on in both their lives in different ways, and begins to let go while still holding onto love.