Eddie is a grizzled war veteran who feels trapped in the toil of his father before him, fixing rides at a seaside amusement park Then he dies in a tragic accident, trying to save a little girl from a falling cart He awakens in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a lush Garden of Eden, but a place where your earthly life is explained to you by five people who were in it These people may have been loved ones or distant strangers Yet each of them changed your path forever