John’s life is coming to an end. Standing on the verge of life and death, he waits at an abandoned BART station. All he has with him are the clothes on his back and a photograph from the day his son was born—his most precious memory.

A mysterious train appears from the fog. As John boards, he finds other passengers in various stages of death: old age, physical harm, disease. None acknowledge each other. The train rides down MacArthur Blvd., through rows of Victorian style homes and the graffiti-lined streets of John’s hometown, Oakland, California. With every block that passes, he’s reminded of the son he’s leaving behind, as well as the uncertainty of what awaits him on the other side.

Soon, the train enters the spirit world and approaches its final destination: a sphere of light, the gateway to the afterlife. While the other passengers celebrate, John is not yet ready to say goodbye to his son. Feeling death approach, he makes a run for it. Racing through the train and out into the spirit world, John searches desperately for a way out of this dimension and back to his family. But there is no escape. A host of Divine Beings, guardians of the spirit world, catch up to him, and he loses the fight for his life.

But our story doesn’t end there. After John passes on, he wakes up to find himself in a messy bedroom where a pre-teen boy is getting ready for school. It’s Tay, John’s son. Despite his initial fears, John realizes his “afterlife” is getting to watch over his son as his guardian angel. And so, John comes to understand that dead doesn’t mean gone; our loved ones are always there with us, even if we can’t physically see them.