Ray Connelly is trying to come to terms with the fact that he and Mo Lehrman will never get to finish their ascent of El Capitan, the Notre Dame of the rock-climbing world. Mo, charismatic and fearlessly romantic, has wandered off to parts unknown, while Ray is settling down (with considerable discomfort), watching his friends marry off, and waiting for word from publishers about the manuscript detailing his and Mo's climbing adventures together. He may even be falling in love. But when Mo shows up out of the blue, convinced that Ray has stolen his unwritten stories, Ray's world collapses. Their conflict is dramatically resolved in a physically excruciating and emotionally fraught climb up the very same peak that thwarted them before.