William Hill, in stage four cancer, takes his son Randall on a road trip from New Jersey to Memphis to show him where he came from. Flashbacks trace William's whole life — his mother Dorothy raising him alone, his Memphis cover band with cousin Ricky, the Pittsburgh trip where he lost Dorothy and first met Laurel — while the present-day drive detours to the park where Jack's ashes are scattered, takes William back to his childhood home, and lands him on Ricky's stage for one last show. The next morning he can't be roused, and a Memphis ER doctor tells Randall it's hours, not months. At the bedside William gives Randall a book of poems, names the first and last people in his life as the two best things in it, and admits he's scared.

The hour is built around the bookends William chooses to keep and the ones Randall is just beginning to unders ...