Two natural disasters. Two young men worlds apart seeking their pathways in life, and their unlikely intersection. When Buffalo, NY, language teacher Bryant Simmons goes online looking for a chat buddy, he stumbles onto a post by the young Moroccan Issam LeBeau, desperate to find a man to rescue him from the strict and conservative culture of his country. While Bryant has little interest in corresponding with Issam, he warns him about the dangers of having a post of this kind in his city of Marrakech. Issam agrees to remove it only if Bryant continues talking to him. And so ensues an extended discussion of lifestyles and cultural differences, the two men becoming ever closer. In spite of Issam's prodding, Bryant isn't sure how far he wants to take the exchange beyond a friendship, at times feeling trapped by the demands of the young man. But fate takes the upper hand, drawing the two closer as one faces death in a freezing blizzard, the other in a terrible earthquake.