Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) is a widower and college history professor at George Washington University with a son, Grant (Spencer Treat Clark). One day, Michael encounters a boy stumbling in the middle of a road in his neighborhood, Brady (Mason Gamble) with horrific injuries to his hands. Michael takes him to hospital and meets his parents Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack), discovering they are his neighbors. They soon become friends, and their sons join the Discoverers, a Boy Scouts-style group.