Fate often causes certain people's paths to cross for unknown reasons. So it was in the case of a man named Elmer Shanklin and a woman named Marcy Keener. Both were a pair of oddballs that met in extraordinary circumstances while they were committed to a mental hospital. The pair vowed to continue their friendship after getting released. However, while Elmer recovered his sanity and his life became stable and normal, Marcy failed to recover and continued in a pattern that landed her back in the hospital over and over again. Along the way, other behaviors on her part worried Elmer, who feared one day she might very well succeed in her long standing and unshakable desire to commit suicide. For Marcy it was not a matter of if but when. All Elmer could do was care and listen.