In the 1960s postwar America, a family's seemingly idyllic existence is shattered. Seymour "Swede" Levov (Ewan McGregor), a once-legendary high school athlete, is now a successful businessman married to a former beauty queen named Dawn (Jennifer Connelly).
He watches his life fall apart when his beloved daughter Merry (Dakota Fanning) is accused of committing a savage act of political terrorism. Swede must find her and reunite his family, before they are ruined.
The film is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Phillip Roth.