The Way is the powerful story of Tom (Martin Sheen), an American doctor who comes to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to collect the remains of his adult son Daniel (Emilio Estevez), killed in a storm while walking El Camino de Santiago (also known as The Way of St James).

Driven by his grief and desire to understand his son better, Tom decides to embark on the historical pilgrimage, leaving his "California bubble life" behind.  While walking The Camino, Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world, all looking for greater meaning in their lives: a Dutchman (a very funny Yorick van Wageningen) trying to lose weight,  an emotionally wounded Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish writer (James Nesbitt) who is suffering from a bout of writer’s block.

Together, this unlikely quartet of misfits create an everlasting bond and Tom begins to learn what it means to be a citizen of the world again and discovers the difference between “the life we live and the life we choose”.