Samuel Braden is being made to face mortality in the most acute way - he is dying of cancer.
And death is coming to haunt him in the form of an agonising regret; a regret centred around three marriages and the three estranged children that each marriage produced.
He manages to convince each of his children to visit with him, and to each he makes a startling request, that they promise to ensure that he is buried in his resting place of choice. It is startling because to each child he gives a different location.
In his last days, Sam is delivering a message that he had taken too long to deliver.