A young man struggles with his own mortality after the death of his father. As he ponders this question, the great question which we must all face at some time or another, and filled with anxiety, his thoughts turn to the first law of thermodynamics: ‘the total energy in a system remains constant, although it may be converted from one form to another.’ Perhaps as one being dies, another is born, and life remains but only changes form and shape. Might this experience of suffering provide the key to accepting his own finitude, and help him push through the grief of losing a loved one?