Jackson's uncle leaves his Montana home to him after his death, prompting [Jackson] to move there from New York with his pregnant girlfriend, Grace. Soon after they settle into the rural house, Grace gives birth to a baby boy, and at first the scene feels bright and playful, a fresh start for a couple adjusting to their new life in the countryside.
Yet the calm quickly frays. [Jackson] spends long stretches away for work, and Grace begins to feel the weight of loneliness and isolation, her days stretching into quiet, empty hours. As she wrestles with these feelings, she discovers that Jackson has been involved with other women while on the road, deepening her sense of abandonment. In response, Grace turns to private acts of release, wandering the house and the surrounding woods, seeking some measure of control over the mounting turmoil.
In the months leading up to the baby’s birth, Harry—the father of Jackson—has also passed away, a loss that lingers in the family. Grace visits Pam, Jackson's mother and a widow, hoping for company and support. The two women share tea and talk about the challenges they face, but as the conversation shifts toward Grace’s mood swings and coping, Grace pulls away, leaving the visit unsettled and uneasy. The dynamics of trust and security within the family begin to feel increasingly fragile.
After Jackson brings home a dog without checking with Grace, she finds the animal difficult to manage; it barks relentlessly and cannot be easily calmed. When the dog is injured in a car accident, Grace insists that it be put out of its misery; Jackson refuses, intending to take the dog to a vet the next day, and Grace takes matters into her own hands.
Grace’s behavior grows more volatile over time. She carries knives, begins an affair with a stranger who drives by on a motorcycle, and on one harrowing night throws herself through a glass door in a moment of panic and rage. The couple’s fights become more frequent and intense, pushing Grace further into a spiraling, unpredictable oscillation between affection and fury.
Despite the strain, Jackson proposes marriage one afternoon, and they share a moment of tenderness on the lawn as they once did. The wedding and reception begin with promise, but by night’s end Grace’s longing for closeness remains unmet, and Jackson withdraws when she keeps pressing for a kiss. She then retreats to the bridal suite, lonely and increasingly unanchored.
Back at home, Grace asks the receptionist for ice for a bottle of champagne; when refused, she’s implied to want someone to come entertain her in her room. She dances to the music, but suddenly hits a glass mirror with force, drawing blood. Grace walks home with the baby in a stroller, and Jackson, quietly distressed, guides mother and child into the car and away from the scene.
Jackson ultimately commits Grace to a psychiatric institution, where a psychiatrist speaks with her about her relationship with her parents and suggests abandonment issues stemming from their deaths. When she’s released, she appears steadier on the surface, but the house has changed in her absence: Jackson has bought a new car and has cleaned, remodeled, and repainted the place.
During a welcome-back party, Grace feels a sting at hearing how “healthy” she looks, and she insists that she doesn’t want to go back to the life she’s left behind. Jackson takes her for a drive, and the two pause in silence as she confesses she does not want to be seen. He stops, and in a charged moment, she kisses him and says, “Enough,” before turning toward the forest.
The years of tension simmer to a dramatic close as Jackson watches Grace, smoking a thoughtful cigarette, walk into the trees. In the forest, she sets aside her journal—what she kept during the ward stay—and, shedding her dress, lets the flames rise around her. Realizing something is terribly wrong, Jackson rushes after her and arrives just in time to see Grace step into the rapidly spreading fire, a devastating end to their fractured world.
