James is a young man full of pain and torment and finds he can no longer live in a cruel and unjust world, so he sets out to kill himself. First though he finds that no one is willing to give him a gun, and he really can't wait for seven days for a background check. He's never been good at tying knots, and even if he was, he can't find any beams that would do the job right (he's just strangle himself to death, and the thought of that bothers him). He's tried drowning but he can't quite come to holding himself underwater long enough. Electrocution seems a bit too risky, as does pills. The train is a good idea, its free but the thought of getting all mangled up and crushed and dragged for a kilometre (and what of the poor chap who'd have to clean him up), turns him right off-he's tried to jump in front of one several times. Pills, well, what if he didn't get the right mix and was just knocked unconscious or worse, he could have a stroke and be in the hospital and care wards for the rest of his life. No. Instead, James has bought a pellet gun that looks like a nine millemetre, and called the cops telling them he's going to kill himself and everyone in his building. So after a tense stand-off James is face to face with two cops, just regular kind of guys, and you know what? They're the closest thing to a conversation he's had in years. Actually they're great guys, smart and funny, and ordinary, but interesting, and caring. Maybe James should be a cop, and join the force, he'd like that. Patrick Flanagan and Pete Kowalski are probably the best friends he's ever had..., course he knows if he puts the gun down, they'll just arrest him and throw him in prison, or the looney bin, or psyche ward - probably the jail, then psyche ward, then the looney bin, that is if they don't shoot him first. Yes, all he has to do is put the gun down. But doing that will separate him from his new buddies, and he's not about to let that happen anytime soon.