Dark Harbor

During a torrential rain, David and Alexis push on toward the last ferry. They spot an injured young man by the road and reluctantly decide to drive him to the nearest town. The encounter unsettles their already fragile marriage and foreshadows the troubling chain of events to come.

Having missed the ferry, the couple check into a motel and plan to take the next day's service. The young man is aboard the following ferry, but they do not meet him on board. The quiet night at the motel contrasts with their unresolved tensions.

David, hoping to mend their seven-year marriage, arranges a romantic sailing excursion. A fog bank envelopes their boat and they run aground, forcing them to confront their miscommunications and sense of responsibility. The trip toward the island redefines the fragile balance between the couple and their guest.

The couple finds the young man camping on the shore and, after a tense initial misunderstanding, invites him to share his fire. David helps with ungrounding the sailboat and invites him into their home, complicating their trust and pulling the guest further into their orbit. The visitor becomes a fixture in the house after this night.

That night, Alexis dreams of taking the blanket to the young man while her husband attacks in jealousy. The dream unsettles her and foreshadows the blurred lines between desire, jealousy, and control. It hints at the deeper tensions roiling their relationship.

In the morning, the couple discovers a lovely breakfast prepared by the young man, and they realize David had delivered the blanket to him. The moment lightens the mood briefly but cannot dispel the growing undercurrents of manipulation and dependence. The dynamic among host, guest, and spouse remains unsettled.

David invites the young man to stay for dinner to sample his cooking, then leaves to play golf. Alexis and the guest spend time together, drinking whiskey and dressing for a playful night in the boat house. The evening deepens their uneasy bond and shifts the power balance between them.

In the boat house, the three share whiskey as the young man explains he is a poet who cannot write. He persuades Alexis to dictate a dark poem about drowning, which she signs with handwriting that hints at complicity. The mood thickens with hints of control and danger.

The trio goes on a mushroom hunt in the nearby woods, where Alexis warns him away from a deadly variety and shows how to distinguish a lethal mushroom from an aphrodisiac. A near-disastrous misstep underscores the fragility of their moral boundaries. They return home with a heavier sense of shared secret.

David pretends to be ill to keep the guest at the house, but the boat then dies on the way back toward town, leaving the young man stranded for another night. The planned departure dissolves, and the house grows tense as hidden motives become harder to ignore. The guest's stay further complicates the couple's already fragile dynamics.

A confrontation erupts as David provokes an argument with Alexis and the young man, who flees to the shed and into the woods. Alexis tells David they are finished, then finds the young man in the woods and he seduces her, attempting to coerce her into eating the mushrooms. She does not stop him this time, sealing a chilling turn in their relationship.

A funeral follows for the young man, and the poem written in Alexis's handwriting is read as if a suicide note. David returns to the island by boat, strips and swims to shore, washing away his old life. The act seals the sense that the relationship has been rebuilt in deceit.

Some time later, a hooded stranger arrives at the house and kisses David, revealing that the young man is his lover. It becomes abundantly clear that Alexis's death was planned by the two of them, sealing the film's final twist and the lovers' complicity.