Eddie has worked at Ruby Pier his whole adult life, maintaining the rides. He is 83. He never left the pier, never became what he dreamed. On his birthday a ride breaks; a cart is about to fall. Eddie runs to save a little girl and is killed. His afterlife begins.
Eddie wanted to be an engineer. The war and his father's demands kept him at the pier. He has carried guilt, anger, and the sense that his life was small. He does not know how many children he has kept safe by fixing the rides—or that his death will complete a circle of meaning.