Samuel Braden is being made to face mortality in the most acute way — he is dying of cancer. And death is coming to haunt him in the form of an agonising regret; a regret centred around three marriages and the three estranged children that each marriage produced.He manages to convince each of his children to visit with him, and to each he makes a startling request, that they promise to ensure that he is buried in his resting place of choice. It is startling because to each child he gives a different location.In his last days, Sam is delivering a message that he had taken too long to deliver.