She confronts him and he admits he was not finished with his chemotherapy. Hilary searches the garbage and discovers his used syringes. During dinner with one of the friends they made at the coast, Victor starts acting aggressively and irrationally. Victor hides his use of morphine to kill the pain. They fall in love and continue living at the coast. They rent a house and Hilary begins to feel that she is no longer needed to care for him. Victor is "finished" with his chemotherapy and suggests they take a vacation to the coast. She researches leukemia and stocks healthier food in the kitchen. Hilary becomes insecure of her ability to care for Victor after her first exposure to the side effects of his chemotherapy treatment. Despite his father's protests, Victor hires Hilary to be his live-in caretaker while he undergoes a traumatic course of chemotherapy. As the film progresses, Victor's health worsens progressively, due to leukemia. Victor Geddes ( Campbell Scott) is a well-educated, rich, and shy 28-year-old. One day, Hilary answers an ad in a newspaper for a nurse only to find herself being escorted out before the interview starts. After recently parting ways with her boyfriend when she caught him cheating, Hilary finds herself living with her eccentric mother ( Ellen Burstyn). Hilary O'Neil ( Julia Roberts) is a beautiful, outgoing yet cautious young woman who has had little luck in work or love.