Journey refuses to believe his mother will not come back. Seeking evidence of happier times, he tries to piece together the pictures she tore up before she went away. And he studies the photographs his grandfather now takes as the older man attempts to provide the boy with a family and a past. In the process, Journey finds that the camera is a means of seeing things the naked eye has missed - things such as the inevitability of his mother's departure and the love that still binds his family together.