Victor and Harlan are two young philosophy professors who have been friends, rivals and pranksters since their college days. But now Harlan has become a Stoic who has adopted a strict unemotional regimen in preparation for the afterlife, while Victor has turned into a wild hedonist who believes that “when you’re dead, you’re dead” and intends to squeeze every drop of pleasure from each fleeting moment. While they are vacationing with their long-suffering wives at a remote cottage on the coast of British Columbia, Victor sets up a trick to prove to Harlan the falseness of his philosophy, but the trick goes murderously wrong and all their lives are changed forever...