As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief twenty years that have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small town and distant parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends - his dog Surrender, and the unruly wild boy Finnigan, with whom he made a boyhood pact. Gabriel is dying from an undisclosed illness. He relives his brief 20 years, remembering his parents' over-protectiveness, his wild friend Finnigan who encouraged him to do terrible things, and his dear dog Surrender. Told from the perspectives of Gabriel and Finnigan, the voices are eerily alike in tone.