Synopsis, in brief

There is no regular life.
Not for Carl.
Falling off a bridge...
Carl Lazarus is miraculously saved by a petty criminal who dies in his place.
To repay the debt,
Carl tries to be the perfect substitute husband and father to the dead man's widow and son.
Can Carl live someone else's life better than his own?
Or will he lose sight of himself
and shatter the illusion of a regular life for all?

Synopsis, in depth

Can you live someone else's life better?
Falling off a bridge, Carl Lazarus is miraculously saved by a stranger—a petty criminal named Paul Schoen who happened to be on the parkway below the bridge stealing a car. Paul pulls Carl to safety but slips and disappears into the murky waters. Shaken by this strange twist of fate, Carl decides that he owes a debt to the fallen Paul.

He searches out the dead man's widow Marta, and young son Paul Jr., only to discover a less than appealing picture of his rescuer—although a good man at heart, Paul Schoen was not the perfect husband or father, but rather a dead beat petty thief who left behind a family unable to afford even his funeral. Sensing an opportunity to make amends, Carl offers to pay for the burial. But when he is fleeced, he learns a rough lesson about Marta's uptown world.

Still, an unlikely relationship blossoms and Carl slowly steps deeper and deeper into Paul's shoes. He begins to build an idealistic version of the regular life for Marta and Paul Jr., all the while ignoring the dark side that still haunts him. Only Roach, Paul's friend, is suspicious of the too-good-to-be true Carl.

A local gang leader of sorts, Roach decides to see what Carl is made of. He offers Carl the chance to join his boys in a scheme to rob a local high stakes card game run by a gangster called Tito. Carl goes along for the wild ride and realizes that he has a taste for it. When he is found out and cast out of his Wall Street office, Carl heads uptown and begins doing "jobs" by himself.

Marta soon discovers that Carl is more like her dead husband than she cares to admit.
But the awful truth—that Carl had not fallen, but in fact had willfully jumped off the bridge that fateful night—is more than she can take. Stunned by the shattered illusion and the grief it will cause young Paul Jr., Marta sends Carl away.

For the first time, Carl realizes the immensity of his loss, and the consequences of his actions. When Tito suddenly reappears and shoots Roach, Carl runs to the only family he knows. A climatic showdown between Carl and Roach's boys gives Carl one final chance at redemption. But can he overcome his own demons and finally repay the debt he owes to Marta and Paul Jr.? Or will Carl realize that there is no regular life, at least not for him?