The film adaptation loosely follows the story of the novel but many of the characters have been changed. Edward Davis is now Sergeant William 'Dutch' Van Den Broeck, a Washington, D.C. police officer. Vivien Simpson is now Kay Chandler, a wealthy Republican Congresswoman with a teenage daughter. They meet when their spouses, Peyton and Cullen, are killed in a plane crash and realize...

The film adaptation loosely follows the story of the novel but many of the characters have been changed. Edward Davis is now Sergeant William 'Dutch' Van Den Broeck, a Washington, D.C. police officer. Vivien Simpson is now Kay Chandler, a wealthy Republican Congresswoman with a teenage daughter. They meet when their spouses, Peyton and Cullen, are killed in a plane crash and realize that they were having an affair. The story evolves around the relationship between the two surviving spouses, as the tragedy envelopes their lives and affects his career as a police officer and her campaign for re-election to Congress.