The three people in Collateral Beauty are Howard Inlet (Will Smith), Madeleine (Kate Winslet), and Whit (Edward Norton). Howard is a successful advertising executive whose life is upended when his young daughter dies. Madeleine is an author who is struggling to write after the death of her husband. Whit is a man who has lost his wife and child in a car accident. All three characters are struggling with grief and trying to find ways to cope.