In sepia tones, the film moves back and forth among three periods in Robert Tucker's life he's an old man, near death, in a nursing home at Christmas time; he's in middle age caring for his cheerful but dying mother; he's a lad at Catholic school, practicing his catechism, going to confession for the first time, receiving the Eucharist, surrounded by the singing of a children's choir. In middle age, he looks through his scrapbook of photographs of muscular men; he recalls lovers and his mother's cremation. A nurse sits beside him on his last night; in his last breath, he reaches forward and back..
八公（Forest 饰）是一条谜一样的犬，因为没有人知道它从哪里来。教授帕克（理查·基尔 Richard Gere 饰）在小镇的火车站拣到一只走失的小狗，冥冥中似乎注定小狗和帕克教授有着某种缘分，帕克一抱起这只小狗就再也放不下来，最终，帕克对小狗八公的疼爱感化了起初极力反对养狗的妻子卡特（琼·艾伦 Joan Allen 饰）。八公在帕克的呵护下慢慢长大，帕克上班时八公会一直把他送到车站，下班时八公也会早早便爬在车站等候，八公的忠诚让小镇的人家对它更加疼爱。有一天，八公在帕克要上班时表现异常，居然玩起了以往
