Jack Britton has carried the horror of combat and the loss of his young wife and his buddies with him for the past 60 years. Now, in the last 36 hours of his life in a hospital intensive care unit, a tired and embattled Britton revisits those aspects of his life and grapples with his long-suffering questions about fate and self-doubt through a psychological phenomenon known as sundown syndrome.

Britton was a Marine who had fought in the well-known and bloody battle for Iwo Jima during World War II. He survived when so many others did not, which meant he had to live with unspeakable memories of seeing friends and brother Marines die horrendous deaths ­ cut down in the prime of their lives.

Not understanding why he was spared over others, Britton moved on with his life only to find love to be just as short-lived when he wife died unexpectedly in childbirth. From then on, Britton was resigned to spend his life quietly trying to answer unanswerable questions. He made a career as an English teacher, raised his son to stand on his own and contributed to the world as best he could, all the while looking to literature and poetry ­ both his own and othersı ­ for meaning and hope.

Having served as both father and mother in the raising of his only child, Britton is now the one being cared for by his son. As Brittonıs physical body faces its final battle, psychological hauntings of the past are triggered with intense and sorrowful detail. And it is the son who must now exhibit the quiet strength fostered by his father.