A dying man who thinks his life has been a failure succeeds in leaving the people he cares for better off with the help of two brand new friends, a young, officious girl and the love of his life with whom he can only spend a few precious months.

SYNOPSIS:

ACT I – Sunny Beamer, a delivery driver with an optimistic view of life, receives a terminal diagnosis and decides to live life to the fullest with his few months left and to leave everyone he loves better off. He starts by searching for inspiration, calling people who played important roles in his life, his ex-wife Eve, daughter Terri and middle school teacher, but is chagrined after hearing how little he has impacted them. He gets together with old friends Mickey, Astra and Felix to recreate good times he has experienced with them, but the good feeling dries up when he tells them of his fate and swears them to secrecy. The next day, his greedy boss makes matters worse by laying him off.

Sunny’s fate begins turning when an officious, organized, mature nine-year old girl named Reggie, visits Sunny asking if he has any odd jobs for her to do and he eagerly gives her the chance to take care of his garden. He also feels like his life means something when Terri, burdened by her hectic schedule, asks Sunny to pick up her daughter (Sunny’s granddaughter) at a specific time in three months.

ACT II – Sunny’s remaining days improve even more when he meets Betty Mung, a person who embraces unpredictability and excitement, that rocks his previously comfortable, staid existence. She takes him bungee jumping instead of Sunny’s plan for dinner and a movie. She suggests they drive a hundred miles to get a delicious pickle on a whim. They appreciate the little things about each other. She values his sense of humor and ability to make her laugh and he learns of the advanced degree she earned taking night courses and her avocation in which she has created thousands of pieces of jewelry. She is tickled by his fondness for practical jokes like mailing postcards to a husband and wife up the street from a fictitious couple. Betty and Sunny make love in the back of his car in a pickle store parking lot. His friends try to get him to tell his new found love of his fatal diagnosis, but the last thing he wants is for their relationship to change in any way, shape or form.

ACT III – After much delay, Sunny relents and Betty is deeply wounded, feeling that he deceived her while she was planning on a future together. On the spur of the moment, she decides she doesn’t want to see him anymore, making Sunny’s worst fears come true. Reggie learns of Sunny’s diagnosis and tearfully tells him she loves him and doesn’t want him to die. Physically and emotionally, Sunny knows the end is near. He informs his doctor he doesn’t want to see her anymore and vanishes.

His friends can’t find him anywhere despite repeated attempts. No one has any idea of what Sunny is doing or whether he is even alive. Time elapses and the mystery unexpectedly ends when he answers a phone call from Terri who wakens him after his collapse on a park bench, reminding him that this is the day he promised to pick up his granddaughter. He doesn’t let on to his diminished state and barely completes the task, smashing the front and back of his car while parking.

Sunny surprises Mickey when he calls him, refusing to let on as to his whereabouts and asks his friend for one last wish without questions asked. Mickey agrees.

Then, he finally gets the chance to talk with his daughter, relishing the opportunity to remember fond memories from her youth and his younger days as a father.

Meanwhile, a building owner in town visits Betty at home, informing her that an anonymous donor paid the rent for a shop and obtained licenses necessary for her to open a jewelry store. Mickey, Astra and Felix usher her into the shop, shocked that her long-held dream is coming true. Reggie visits Sunny to find out if there is anything she can do for him in his final days. He tells her that if he had one last wish, he wants her to make sure she’s happy and kind to people while watching out for the ones who will try to take advantage of her.

The grand opening of the jewelry store happens with Betty’s favorite celebrity, Jorge Bardoo, the suave, handsome, popular Spanish actor, there to cut the ribbon, and his presence attracts a big crowd. His opening remarks tells the story of a man who showed up at the gates of his villa in a weakened state, asking him to grant one final wish before he died. Naturally, he could not refuse a man his final wish in life. We soon learn that Sunny has asked a variety of people for one last wish to make things right for the people cares for. While Sunny’s friends volunteer as counter help, Mickey is interrupted by a call from his bookie that sounds like an ultimatum to pay the full amount of a gambling debt on that very night even though he does not have the money. A desperate Betty calls Sunny and he surprises her by answering his phone, asking if he knows anyone who can help Mickey who looks like he is in serious trouble.

Sunny drags himself to Slim’s, the bar where the bookie is supposed to meet Mickey, asking his waiter to help him put on Mickey’s old jacket, yanking Mickey’s baseball cap over his eyes. The bookie naturally mistakes Sunny for Mickey and acts like he’s going to rough him up or worse. Sunny tips his cap up, revealing his true identity, and pulls out a gun but cannot find the strength to pull the trigger. The bookie mocks Sunny and pulls out his own gun, relishing the idea of Sunny twisting in the wind before he blows him away. However, Sunny reaches back, summoning the strength to pull the trigger mortally wounding the bookie and escapes in a taxi.

Betty, Astra and Felix return from the jewelry store opening in a celebratory mood. Mickey returns shortly after and tells them how, when he showed up at Slim’s, someone had already been there and shot the bookie dead like the whole sequence of events was divine intervention. Everybody leaves Betty’s apartment and Betty shockingly discovers a spent Sunny has been in her living room waiting for her in the dark. She expresses how much she loves him and how she loves her jewelry shop as Sunny fades into eternity.

The finale is a succession of short scenes revealing friends and family twenty years after his death. His wife accepts a delivery of flowers. Reggie is all grown up tending to her own garden. Betty accepts a delivery of pickles. The last scene is an old couple receiving post cards from the fictitious couple as the longest practical joke ever goes on.