Magazine editor Henry Calder?s ordered life has unravelled. He?s just been ousted from the glamorous job that gave his life meaning, and he lost his wife, Martha, less than a year ago. Then he meets Maggie, a rebellious young artist working as a bartender. When Maggie is evicted, Henry offers her a place to stay. But there is something about the young woman and her work that disturbs him, and before long Henry is facing a crisis neither of them could ever have foreseen.The Benefactor is about art?s power to alter our view of ourselves and our world. It asks how we construct meaning in our lives-and how we react when the foundations we have built our identities upon are knocked out from beneath us.