Stan is a successful businessman. Perhaps he drinks a bit too much, and perhaps he's a bit too anxious for no reason anyone in his life can understand. But he's a success, damn it. And his life is moving along just fine, thank you -- until he gets the call from his mother. She brings strange news: Stan's long-estranged father has decided, quite rationally and calmly, to starve himself to death -- and Stan is the only person in the world who can talk him out of it.