A successful novelist decides to commit suicide to make amends to the women he has hurt in his life.
Charlie Forte lives on top of the world with a view of the Pacific to the west and downtown Los Angeles to the east. He is determined to drive off into Malibu Canyon to kill himself as a way of atoning to all the women he's hurt. He also hopes his death will propel sales of his latest novel, a fictional self-confession, and thereby provide an annuity for his wife. But first he must see his former lover one last time. She rebuffs him. He runs after her, falls and knocks himself unconscious. While in a coma all the women in his life visit him, many with their own signature music. From his mother, to his wife, sisters, aunts one-night-stands, therapist, long time loves and some who got away. Comotose, Charlie does more penance than he could ever do dead or alive.