When his small Honda is rear-ended by a much larger vehicle (traveling at 55 miles per hour), the Honda is demolished and while the small car's owner manages to walk away, he suffers extensive brain injury. His struggle to regain memory, sense of smell, vision without the aide of dark glasses, life without headaches, and the ability to cry, lasts several years. In that time the author of A Quest for Tears joins a large group of people also suffering from traumatic brain injury as they move together through a long and painful struggle to regain life "before" the loss of tears.