Howard Wakefield, Jason O'Mara, a successful attorney in New York City, is unhappy in his fifteen-year marriage to Diana, Jennifer Garner, a beautiful art curator and former dancer. Their relationship was once kept lively by flirtations with other people, a tactic Diana eventually comes to resent. One night, after a disrupted commute and a citywide power outage, Howard returns home late and becomes distracted by a raccoon slipping into their detached garage. He slips into the attic to get a perfect view of his house and watches Diana with their two daughters, Taylor and Giselle, eating dinner. He ignores her calls, amused by her clear annoyance, and when she throws his dinner plate away rather than saving it, he’s momentarily insulted. To avoid a fight, he decides to wait before entering, but exhaustion wins, and he falls asleep.
The next morning, Diana calls the police to report him missing, certain he is gone for good. Howard feels a pang of guilt as he watches her cry, yet before he can reenter the house, his overbearing mother-in-law, Babs, arrives to comfort her. An argument erupts between Babs and Diana about Howard’s whereabouts, with Diana insisting there’s no evidence he took money or ran off. After Diana leaves for work, Howard plans to deal with the fallout quietly, but he finds himself resenting the idea that she will resume her routine without him. He cleans up any traces of his presence, steals a little food from the pantry, and returns to the attic.
What begins as a clever escape gradually shifts into a more permanent detachment. Howard delights in shedding old responsibilities and revels in the perception that others would assume his wife had driven him away. He spends his days reading, puzzling, and quietly observing his family and neighbors, while sneaking food and basic amenities from his former life. He also grows a beard and long hair, moving about town as if he were a misunderstood figure, dismissed by most as homeless. Two of Dr. Sondervan’s residents, Herbert and Emily, eventually follow him back to the attic, prompting quiet reflections about the man he was and is.
As time passes, Howard revisits the memories that led to their estrangement. He recalls meeting Diana when she was dating his close friend Dirk Morrison, a fiercely competitive Wall Street trader. Through manipulation and deceit, Howard had won her away from Dirk, and he wonders whether he ever truly loved her. Yet his extended absence gives him an unsettling clarity: by simply disappearing, he has gained a troubling form of control over her life. If he had divorced her, she would have had the freedom to move on with someone else; by vanishing, he instead anchors her to a complicated, uncertain future.
With the seasons shifting from summer to fall, Howard’s perspective deepens. He realizes that his lifelong behavior—selfishness, jealousy, and a self-pitying sense of victimhood—has shaped everything. He experiences a paradoxical freedom and confinement at once: he is free from his old life, yet he feels increasingly trapped by the consequences of his choices. He comes to understand that his family may be happier without him, even as he recognizes that he has never loved Diana more deeply.
One afternoon, Diana begins a new romantic chapter with Dirk, a development that shocks Howard, who believes Dirk could have once told her the lies that fractured their relationship years ago. Rather than retreat, he resolves to pursue an honest chance to let Diana decide for herself whom she wants to be with. After tidying up and buying a new suit, he steels himself to return home. He envisions two possible reactions: joy at his return or horror at the sight of him. He pauses on the sidewalk, then gathers his courage and steps back inside.
When he finally enters the living room, he sees Diana and the daughters decorating the Christmas tree. He weighs the two possible outcomes in his mind, then makes a quiet choice that changes nothing and everything at once. He steps across the threshold and declares, "I'm home."
