After a devastating nervous breakdown, emotionally fragile Lane (Farrow) has returned to her childhood home in Vermont to recuperate. Buoyed by a summer romance with neighbouring writer Sam (Waterson), Lane is soon determined to leave Vermont and start a new life. But when Sam's affections mysteriously cool and Lane's over-bearing mother arrives with a shocking announcement, Lane finds herself suddenly tangled in a destructive web of passion, deception and manipulation. Now her only way out of her emotional tailspin is to comfort the fear she's never escaped... and a terrifying secret that has haunted her life.