Ellie Klug is a music critic in her 40s at a dying underground magazine, Stax. Her editor, Giles, assigns Ellie to write a piece on Matthew Smith on the 10th anniversary of his disappearance which most people consider a suicide. Ellie, who was Matthew's childhood sweetheart and who remained with him until his disappearance, is unconvinced that he is dead and decides to track Matthew down. After receiving a tip online as to Matthew Smith's location, Giles gives Ellie a thousand dollars to pay the source. However Ellie is distracted by Lucas Stone, a struggling musician who is interested in Ellie, and accidentally leaves the money beside him when she leaves to catch her bus. When Ellie ignores his calls, Lucas misinterprets Ellie's actions and uses the money to cut a demo tape, believing that Ellie left him the money as a show of faith. Ellie manages to come up with the money to bribe her source by going to Charlie, an awkward but wealthy socialite whom she had briefly dated in the past. Charlie agrees to help Ellie if she allows him to film her as part of a documentary on her search for Matthew Smith. Ellie agrees, but the source is a scammer and the documentary quickly falls apart after they run out of leads. Charlie admits he loaned her the money because he was interested in having a relationship with her. Ellie begins dating Lucas, but grows insecure after he begins to experience some success. When he fails to show up for Charlie's wedding Ellie assumes he has left her and sleeps with another man only to have Lucas walk into her room late in the night. He returns the money to her with a note explaining the miscommunication that led to him taking it. After breaking up with Lucas, Ellie spirals into a depression, obsessively watching the video of a man she believes to be Matthew Smith performing a song which she believes is about her. She finally has a breakthrough when she realizes that all of Matthew's old issues of Stax were under his mother's name and discovers while looking through the database at work that the subscription was never cancelled but the delivery address was changed. Ellie and Charlie go to the address listed on the subscription and find it's a bar. When Ellie asks the bartender if she knows Matthew Smith the woman answers in the negative but places a call on a cellphone shortly after. Ellie and Charlie follow her to her home. In the morning she sees a man outside the house and after approaching him she realizes it's Matthew. The two have a short conversation where she realizes that Matthew and the bartender are living together and have a child. When Ellie asks him about the song he was playing he tells her he has no new songs. Ellie and Charlie leave and Charlie gives Ellie all the footage from the documentary. She in turn writes a piece for Giles about Matthew without revealing that he is still alive and leading a quiet and secluded life. The end of the film shows Ellie going out on a date with Charlie.
