Twenty-eight-year-old Veronika lives in Manhattan, works as an administrative assistant by day, and by night carries on like many single women--dating men, occasionally sleeping with them, and returning to a small studio apartment. It is a life, but not a very compelling one. One day, Veronika decides to end it with a cocktail of pills. Her failed attempt, and her inexplicable reasons for wanting to die, lands her in a psychiatric hospital. Veronika's disappointment at having survived suicide is palpable. She imagines the rest of her life filled with disillusionment and monotony. However, Veronika learns that the end she desires will come about after all--the doctors tell her that her failed suicide attempt has left her with irreparable heart damage, and that she is destined to die within a week. Over the course of that week, Veronika forms a new perception of life, and death.