Seventeen-year-old Ben Marshall lives under the shadow of a family that blends faith with control, longing with neglect. His father, Robert, is a vicar whose passion for birds and sermons sits beside a quiet, unspoken distance from his son. His mother, Laura, is tireless in good deeds and church work, yet emotionally distant, steering Ben away from friends his own age and denying him basic freedoms like a mobile phone. Her piety hides a more complicated life, including an affair with Peter, a young curate who plays a role in the church pageant Laura directs.
Ben’s world is a mixture of small rejections and small rebellions. He writes poems for Sarah, a girl from church, hoping for a flicker of affection that never fully arrives—the poems are unread by the girl who ultimately rejects him. Laura’s controlling grip tightens: she uses his driving lessons to shuttle him around for her affair and denies him ordinary rites of adolescence, leaving him feeling seen by no one.
When summer arrives, Ben takes on a job to help care for Mr. Fincham, a mental patient Laura has adopted. The opportunity comes with a new lodger in the form of Dame Evie Walton, an alcoholic, classically trained actress whose career faded long ago. Evie hires Ben as a companion to help around the house, and their connection is immediate and uncomplicated in contrast to the tangle at home. Evie’s presence brightens his days, and the two form a tenuous friendship built on mutual need and shared space.
Laura’s resistance peaks when she forbids a camping trip with Evie, but they eventually embark on a country drive that ends with Laura taking a drastic step—she swallows the car key, effectively trapping Ben in the car as they search for a secluded campsite. The next morning, Laura announces a new destination: the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she has been invited to read poetry. What follows is a road trip that becomes a turning point for Ben. On the journey, he experiences his first sexual encounter with Bryony, one of the young organizers of the event, and, for the first time, begins to understand what it might mean to take responsibility for his own life. He discovers an inner strength and a willingness to stand up for himself.
When they return home, Laura looks at Evie with suspicion, convinced the older woman has corrupted Ben. Evie visits, but Laura rebuffs her, heightening the tension. In a moment of defiance, Ben walks offstage during the church pageant and bikes to Evie’s house, where the two old friends reconcile. Evie attends the Pageant, and in a bold moment she is cast as God, using the crowd’s fervor to amplify a sense of divine power. Ben joins her in the car park, and Laura’s pursuit intensifies as she tries to weaponize the Bible once more. But Ben’s resolve breaks through: he tells Laura to go away.
Tragedy strikes when Mr. Fincham’s fragile mental state worsens, and Laura is knocked down in a crash caused by his condition. In the hospital, Laura tells Ben that her near-death experience has left her certain she is a prophet and that God commands she divorce Robert and run off with Peter, who has been fired from the Bishop’s side. Peter takes Laura to Cornwall to convalesce. The family drama widens as Ben confronts Sarah, who treats their affair as God’s will; he finally speaks his mind with a blunt, decisive rebuke: she can keep her beliefs to herself, and he tells her to “fuck off.”
With Evie’s quiet guidance, Ben begins to envision a life away from the suffocating home front. He purchases a tent and moves into Evie’s backyard, taking a tentative step toward independence. His father, caught between love and loyalty, tries to reach him, but Ben makes it clear that the fault lay not with Laura alone but with a broken dynamic that needed to be severed. Robert reveals that he had tried to ask for a divorce—because he loved his wife and wanted something healthier for their family—but his honesty underscores the depth of their rift and his own longing for reconciliation.
As the film moves toward its end, Ben reconnects with Evie and shares the news that he will move to Edinburgh to study English at university. Evie, at once proud and wistful, rewards his growth with a warm compliment and a promise to visit whenever he is home from college. Ben’s final walk through the park, headed toward a life of his choosing, marks the turning point from a restrained adolescence to a future defined by his own choices.
In the closing moments, Ben steps toward Edinburgh with a sense of relief and possibility. The park scene—the quiet, ordinary moment of walking home to pack—feels like a small triumph: a young man no longer trapped by the demanding needs of others, but ready to lend his voice to his own story and, at last, to live it on his own terms.
