Plot
Empire Falls, Maine is a small, decaying and nearly bankrupt town. Miles Roby, the passive and unassuming manager of the Empire Grill, has lived there his entire life. Freshly divorced from ex-wife Janine, who left him for Walt, the owner of the local fitness center, Miles lives in a small apartment above the Grill. Janine, a selfish and cocky exercise addict who has recently lost fifty pounds, lives in Miles' old house with their teenager daughter, Christina ("Tick"), and Walt, who visit the Empire Grill every day in an attempt to show there are no hard feelings about him breaking up Miles' marriage.
Miles' younger brother, David, is a talented cook at the Empire Grill. Their partnership has made the restaurant successful but not profitable due to restrictions by its owner, Francine Whiting, the town's wealthiest citizen. Whiting, who is outwardly friendly but also condescending and manipulative, seems to enjoy exerting control over Miles. She is the widow of C.B. Whiting, who owned the now defunct shirt factory that employed many of the town's citizens, including Miles' late mother, Grace.
Always complicating matters is Miles' grubby ne'er-do-well father, Max, a rascal who can't resist a handout when it comes his way, but nonetheless loves his sons and his granddaughter.
Miles is plagued by flashbacks of his childhood. He recalls a trip to Martha's Vineyard with his mother and their time with a mysterious man named Charlie Mayne. After discovering his father is in jail for being a public nuisance, Miles suspects an affair between his mother and Charlie. When they return to Empire Falls, it's revealed that Grace is pregnant. After being laid off from the shirt factory, she goes to work for Mrs. Whiting, explaining to Miles that she's done someone "a great wrong" and needs to make amends.
As an adult, Miles reflects on these memories and realizes that Charlie Mayne was in fact C.B. Whiting, who after an argument with his wife accidentally ran over their young daughter with his car. The guilt from crippling her led him to exile himself in Mexico, returning years later determined to kill Francine, only to lose his determination at the sight of his daughter and shoot himself instead.
David pushes Miles to stand up to Mrs. Whiting so they can run a more profitable business, which eventually leads to Miles choosing to go into business with his former mother-in-law, Bea, the owner of a local bar. Whiting attempts to sabotage their plans by pulling strings with the county and the police force, culminating in a confrontation with Miles, wherein he quits the Empire Grill and reveals what he knows about his mother's affair with C.B.
Miles is close with his daughter, Tick, who is fending off angry outbursts from her cruel ex-boyfriend, Zack Minty, and an emotional conflict over her mother's engagement to Walt, whom Tick despises. She befriends John Voss, an emotionally disturbed boy at school whose parents abandoned him with his grandmother after years of abuse. The obnoxious jock Zack and his friends constantly bully John. It's eventually revealed as a result of their meddling and cruelty that John's grandmother died months ago and he has been living in her decrepit home ever since.
John comes to the high school with a gun and shoots several of his classmates. He attempts to shoot Tick, but she is saved by the school's principal. Tick is deeply traumatized by the shooting. Miles takes her on an extended trip to Martha's Vineyard, where she begins to recover after several weeks. He calls Janine and discovers that she and Walt split up. A powerful storm caused the nearby river to swell, which led to numerous plots of land becoming expensive lakeside properties and led to new investment in the town, with the dormant industrial buildings turned into thriving businesses. Mrs. Whiting is revealed to have been killed in the storm as well, removing any remaining impediments to Miles and Bea's new restaurant.
Max arrives in Martha's Vineyard to ask for money and bring Miles and Tick home. Miles suggests that David might not be Max's son, something Max rejects, insisting that, "a man knows his own child," and that David is his son. Max happily reunites with Tick, who says she is ready to return home.
