Though Erik's mother and father meet and fall madly in love with one another, married life for the Karmers is unexpectedly fraught with tension and misery. Erik grows up, in a weird way, completely estranged from his mother. She raises him at arm's length and the two don't actually become close until the last year of her life when Erik is in his late 40's. And when his mother dies, it starts a chain of events that leads Erik to 'The Good Night Inn" with a gun in his hand and a headstrong determination to end his life.