When her 14-year-old son drowns in a lake, a faithful mother prays for him to come back from the brink of death and be healed.
When he was 14, Smith drowned in Lake Saint Louis and was dead for nearly an hour. According to reports at the time, CPR was performed 27 minutes to no avail. Then the youth's mother, Joyce Smith, entered the room, praying loudly. Suddenly, there was a pulse.
It's January 2015 in St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis. Fourteen year old John Smith, of Guatemalan descent, was adopted by Caucasians Brian and Joyce Smith when John was an infant and they were on a mission in Latin America. John is at the stage of his life where he is acting out, placing barriers between himself and his parents. The only things John seems to care about are basketball having made the school team's first string - and even then he has a tendency to grandstand on the court to prove himself to Chad who he beat out for the position - hanging out with his friends, particularly his best friends Josh and Rieger, and girls, most of his thoughts toward Abby. While Brian tries to connect to John by being his buddy and talking about basketball, Joyce feels they still have to be his parents and not his friends. The church used to be Joyce's sanctuary, but even the physical building of the church and the spirituality she got from it she feels are slowly being taken away from her in she constantly butting heads with the new pastor, Jason Noble, who is trying to take the church in a progressive direction against Joyce's sensibilities. Things for the Smiths change when on Martin Luther King Day, John, Josh and Rieger, against warnings, are playing on frozen St. Louis Lake, they eventually falling through the ice into the water. While first responders are able to pull Josh and Rieger out without incident, John has fallen below the ice unconscious into the murky water below. Although firefighter Joe Marrow believes they are now dealing with a non-emergency recovery rather than an emergency rescue mission, fellow firefighter Tommy Shine is able to locate an unresponsive John. John having been in the water for fifteen minutes, CPR not having been administered until twenty minutes after the fall, and rushing him to the hospital with no pulse for forty five minutes, Dr. Kent Sutterer, the attending ER doctor who happens to be Abby's father, allows Joyce to say her goodbyes to John. It isn't until Joyce is by John's side praying for a miracle that John regains a pulse. Following, differing views emerge as to John's potential recovery and survival. Dr. Garrett, the specialist in drowning cases, can only provide his scientific opinion, which is probable death through the night, and if John does survive, he will have suffered massive and permanent neurological damage with his brain being deprived of oxygen for such a long period of time. Brian, while at the hospital, cannot get himself to see John as he can only take his faith so far before common sense as to what will happen kicks in. Joyce, who has had a need to control things around her most of her life, does so as much as she can in John's situation, while she truly does believe that a miracle can happen as she continues to look to God. Pastor Jason knows he has to bridge what gaps have emerged between him and Joyce for both their and John's sake. And Tommy, a non-religious man, knows that some higher power that day told him to stay in the water to look for John.—Huggo
John Smith (Marcel Ruiz) is a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy raised in Lake St. Louis, Missouri by his adoptive parents, Brian (Josh Lucas) and Joyce Smith (Chrissy Metz). Though they are loving and supportive, John struggles with feelings of abandonment from his birth parents, and rebels against his parents and teachers. Joyce is a deeply religious woman. She completely understands John's need to rebel (and is exasperated by his behavior) and showers him with unconditional love.
Thursday, January 15th, 2015, Joyce drops John to school. In school, John's class is assigned to give a presentation about their family backgrounds. On John's Day to present his assignment in class, John admits he did not do the assignment. His basketball coach, who had promised him a starting position, warns John that if he gets a failing grade, he will be benched. John later gives a half-heart presentation, saying that everyone already knows he is adopted, and he does not know much about his true background. He was adopted when he was 9 months old, as Joyce and Brian used to go to Guatemala on Mission trips.
John has a romantic interest in Abby (Maddy Martin) who is Kent's daughter.John's birthday is coming up and Joyce is worried that John is building a wall between him and the rest. Joyce blames herself for John's isolation. Joyce also dislikes the town's new pastor Jason, who has recently transferred from California. She doesn't like Jason's funky haircut and his disrespect for local committees who are involved in social work and outreaches. Jason is married to Paula (Lisa Durupt).
On Sunday January 18th, 2015, Jason organizes a religious themed concert in Church and has a very modern way of explaining God and commitment to God by way of religion. John plays in the basketball game and refuses to pass the ball to school bully Chad. John scores the basket himself in the dying seconds of the game, to win the match for his team.
Monday, January 19th, 2015, is public holiday as it is Martin Luther King Day. Later, John and his friends Josh (Isaac Kragten) and Reiger (Nikolas Dukic) go out onto a frozen lake, ignoring a neighbor's warning. The resident calls the police, but then all three boys fall through the ice. Josh and Reiger manage to swim to the surface (John is kicked in the head accidentally by Josh and is unconscious as his sinks to the bottom of the lake) and are rescued by first Responders. By this time John has already been under water for 5 to 7 minutes.Two rescuers dive in but are unable to find John. As they are about to give up, one of the rescuers, Tommy Shine (Mike Colter), hears a voice telling him to go back. Thinking it is his chief (Chuck Shamata) instructing him from the sidelines, he tries again, and manages to lift John to the surface. John was underwater for roughly 20 minutes by that time.Joyce is informed by Reiger's mother Cindy (Rebecca Staab) about the accident and is told to come to the Hospital.
With no pulse or breath, John is taken to the local St Joseph West Hospital, where an emergency team works frantically to save his life. By this point John has been not breathing for a total of 45 minutes. After John still fails to register a pulse, the attending physician Dr. Sutterer (Sam Trammell) gives Joyce a chance to say goodbye.A weeping Joyce cradles her son in her arms, pleading with the Holy Spirit to not let John die, at which point a faint pulse registers. Dr. Sutterer recommends transferring John to a better equipped hospital, citing Dr. Garrett (Dennis Haysbert) as an expert in cases like John's. John is airlifted to the new hospital Cardinal Glennon. Joyce travels with John, even though she is terrified of heights.
After John is transferred and placed in a medically induced coma, Garrett warns his parents that he has little hope for John's recovery. John's brain and organs were deprived of Oxygen for 20 minutes. He says if John were to pull through, he would likely live in a persistent vegetative state with severe Neurological damage.Jason Noble (Topher Grace), the family's new liberal pastor with whom Joyce has frequently clashed, visits the hospital, and Joyce slowly warms to him. Like Joyce, he regards John's progress as divine intervention. John shows some signs of consciousness: he is able to hear Joyce and Noble and respond with squeezes to the hand, and a tear trickles from his eye as a crowd gathers to sing and pray for his recovery.
Joyce turns John's possible recovery into an obsession, harassing his health care professionals and alienating those around her, including her husband. In a heated moment, Joyce tells Brian that if not for her, John would be dead. After a brief and hurtful rebuttal, Brian storms off. Realizing she cannot control John's outcome, Joyce retreats to the roof of the hospital to pray, asking God for forgiveness and submitting to His will. It begins to snow, which she believes is an answer.She and Brian meet with Garrett, who tells them that the drugs they have been administering are becoming toxic to John's system and may be doing more harm than good. Joyce, who had been adamant about saving John's life at all costs, suggests stopping treatment and bringing him out of the coma, stating that she is ready for whatever fate brings. Garrett agrees.
John is revived and slowly regains consciousness, reliving his accident. He hears his mother's voice and opens his eyes, with full cognitive ability. A few days later, he is discharged from the hospital and returns to school. Dr Garrett admits to Joyce that John's recovery is a miracle.
John's return, though welcomed by many, is met with some resentment by others, who question why John was spared while their own loved ones died. This weighs on John's mind, and he returns to the lake, where he sees Tommy Shine, and thanks him for saving his life. Tommy admits that he did not believe in God until after a series of protracted events since John's accident, and all he did was pull John from the water.
John reconciles his survival with a renewed sense of purpose in his life and rebuilds his relationships with those he had been alienating. An epilogue reveals that John is pursuing a career in ministry after graduating from high school.
