| Director | Allen Coulter |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film, romance film |
| Runtime | 113 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $16 million |
| Box office | $56 million |
In 1991, a young girl named Ally Craig witnesses her mother Helen being mugged and fatally shot on a New York subway station platform.
10 years later, Ally is a student at NYU, and lives with her father Neil, an NYPD detective, in Queens. Tyler Hawkins audits classes at NYU and works at the Strand Bookstore. He and his sister Caroline have a strained relationship with their workaholic businessman father, Charles.
One night, Tyler and his best friend and roommate Aidan get involved in somebody else's fight, and are arrested by Neil. Aidan calls Charles to bail Tyler out, but he refuses to talk with his father. When Aidan sees Neil dropping Ally off, Aidan realizes Ally is Neil's daughter. So, he suggests Tyler get revenge on the detective by sleeping with and dumping Ally.
Ally and Tyler go to dinner, then continue seeing each other. After noticing a tattoo on Tyler's chest reading "Michael", he reveals to her that his brother Michael committed suicide years ago; Ally later reveals about her mother's death. Aidan turns up at Tyler's apartment, meets Ally for the first time and convinces them to go to a party.
As Ally drank too much, she stays over to sleep it off. The following morning, she tries to sneak in. However, Neil hits her when she stands up to him, and Ally flees back to Tyler's apartment, where they have sex.
Caroline is a budding young artist, who is featured in an art show. She tries to get their father to attend, but he fails to show. Caroline is heartbroken, so Tyler confronts him in a boardroom filled with people. He accuses his father of willingly distancing himself from his children to avoid feeling the pain of losing another child, so father and son come to blows.
When Neil's partner recognizes Tyler with Ally on a train, Neil breaks into his apartment. Recognizing him, he discovers Tyler's initial reason for meeting Ally, so reacts violently. This forces Tyler to confess to a distraught Ally. Later, Aidan visits her at her father's home to explain it was his fault, and that Tyler is genuinely in love with her.
Caroline is bullied by classmates at a birthday party, where they cut off a chunk of her hair. Ally and Aidan visit Tyler's mother's apartment, where Caroline is sobbing. Tyler accompanies his sister back to school, and following further bullying, he reacts violently and is arrested. Charles again bails out his son, but this time vows to exert his power over the school's board of trustees to force the bullies to leave. Charles asks Tyler to meet his lawyers at his office.
Tyler spends the night with Ally, and they declare their love for each other. The next morning, Charles advises Tyler he will be late, as he is taking Caroline to school. Happy their dad is spending time with his sister, he tells him he will wait in his office. Looking on Charles's computer, Tyler sees a slideshow of pictures with him and his siblings when they were younger.
Caroline arrives at her classroom, where the teacher writes the date as Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Tyler looks out the window of his father's office, which is revealed to be located on the north edge of the 101st floor in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
As the camera pans over Tyler's family and friends observing the terrorist attacks and the rubble from the World Trade Center, a voice-over of Tyler's diary declares his love for Michael, forgiving him for killing himself. Tyler, who has been killed in the attacks, is buried next to his brother.
Some time later, Caroline and Charles seem to have a healthy father-daughter relationship; Aidan, who has since gotten a tattoo of Tyler's name on his arm, is working hard in college; and Ally, who has not ridden the subway since Helen was killed, gets on a train at the same station where she died.