One Week

Ben Tyler, a young Toronto elementary school English teacher, learns he has an aggressive fourth-stage cancer. He decides to seize an adventure on a motorcycle before starting treatment. He breaks the news to his fiancée, Samantha, who opposes the plan, and he leaves Toronto to begin his road trip.

On the way home, an elderly man sells his 1973 Norton Commando motorcycle and Ben buys it, despite Samantha's dislike of motorcycles. After finishing a Tim Hortons coffee, he sees only the rim message 'Go West Young Man'.

Early in the trip Ben questions its worth and briefly turns back. He then meets two young men bicycling from Newfoundland to Vancouver for a beer bet, which makes his own adventure feel plausible and prompts him to continue.

Samantha has packed a childhood book Ben wrote, hoping to read it to their future children. The attached note about reading it to his own kids reaffirms his sense of purpose and strengthens his resolve to symbolically resume his search for Grumps.

Ben recalls discovering, while planning their wedding, that he has no religious beliefs and Samantha's beliefs differ from his. They argue about compromises she has made for him, undermining his sense of their future together.

Ben's motorcycle breaks down in rural Saskatchewan; he encounters a dead dog and calls its owner, a middle-aged rancher. She rescues him, gives him a scenic horseback ride, and fixes the bike's minor problem.

The time Ben spends with the rancher leads her to confront her own family; she is twice-divorced with a son and granddaughter she rarely sees, and this encounter inspires her to seek out her son and to move toward a new romance.

Ben continues to Banff National Park and checks into an expensive hotel suite. Samantha has told his family about his cancer and flies out to join him.

While in the woods for a final adventure, Ben meets Tracy, a backpacker with her dog, and spends the night with her. The next morning Samantha arrives earlier than expected; Ben confesses he slept with Tracy and reveals he does not love her as she loves him, and she leaves.

On Vancouver Island, a diner encounter leaves him unable to eat as a truck hits his motorcycle. He rents a surfboard and heads out into the Pacific, going farther than expected until a humpback whale breaches the surface; remembering his father, he feels he has found Grumps and decides to go home.

Ben makes his way home to his family and discusses his prospects with Samantha, leading to their impending breakup. He returns to his family and reorients toward a future apart from Samantha.

The final sequence reveals the narrator recording the last chapter of an audiobook, which is revealed to be One Week by Ben Tyler, a memoir of his motorcycle trip.