Floating is the tale of a young man's coming of age struggle set against a turbulent emotional time and financial woes. Van (Norman Reedus), whose life is destroyed when he was sixteen by a car accident during which his father's legs were severed. Van's mother (Sybil Temchen), is unable to endure her husband's alcoholism and his depression which leads to financial loss, has abandoned the family. Van, therefore is left to shoulder the responsibility of his embittered father, with no one to help him through his own pain and problems.