At an early point in the narrative, before the three narrators set out to surprise her at the hospital, Maggie comments to one of her students that sometimes we know we will lose a struggle before we start, yet we must still rise to meet the challenge with our best effort. With these words she sets the stage for a motif that recurs throughout: the failure of one’s ambitions. As Maggie eventually reveals, she failed as a child when she tried to be a magician, only to face the unceremonious scorn of her family when her major trick failed.

In turn, each of the narrators confronts his own failed ambition. Crashing over a trash can as he pursues the man who stole money meant to buy a gift for Maggie, Topher twists his ankle badly, acknowledging when he cannot walk afterward that he has failed in his dream to be a superhero. Steve, pressured by his parents to be the perfect counterpart to his overachieving sister, must admit that he simply cannot equal or surpass his sister in any endeavor. Brand, stymied in his desire to motivate his father simply to get up off the couch, admits that he cannot inspire his father to continue his physical rehabilitation.