The film follows a quiet, unsettling bond between David Lamb and a teenage girl named Tommie, set against the backdrop of a city that feels heavy with loss and a countryside that carries its own tense quiet. The story begins with David visiting his sick and dying father, Walter Lamb, only to return to his motel room and face the moment of his father’s death. After the funeral, he finds himself in a stark, depressive corner of Chicago, where a chance encounter with Tommie—who is sent by her friends to ask him for a cigarette—pulls him into a dangerous, if compelling, game. When David agrees to give her a cigarette, Tommie brings along her friends, and David decides to scare them by pretending to kidnap her, a reckless move meant to prove a point to the young girl and to test his own detachment from the world around him. He then brings Tommie back to his modest life’s shelter.
Back at work, David’s boss Wilson offers condolences and urges him to take time off, a suggestion that only nudges David toward a more solitary path. An office romance blossoms in the most forbidden of places: the stairwell. Linny and David share a moment of passion, an act that makes David feel suddenly misplaced and ready to escape to the country. He confesses to Linny that he intends to retreat to his property in the country to clear his head, a plan that will test every boundary between him and Tommie.
David runs into Tommie again in that same parking lot, but he gives her a false name, “Gary,” and even offers to buy her lunch. At Tommie’s home, her mother Linda and Linda’s boyfriend Jesse probe where she’s been; Tommie lies, saying she was at a friend’s house. The next day, the two children—now bound by a fragile, troubling connection—spend more time together. David proposes a camping trip for a week, insisting he will return before anyone grows worried. Tommie chooses to stay, drawn by a complicated mixture of trust and dependence.
A turn occurs at a truck stop when Melissa notices Tommie crying. Tommie lies, revealing the alias “Emily.” She asks to go home; David promises he could take her back, the two repeating a dangerous rhythm of closeness and distance. The day after, they sit by a lake; Foster, a neighbor at the cabin, interrupts with a blunt reminder: they are on private property. David bluffs, telling Foster that Tommie is his niece, Emily. The journey back from the mountains reveals a new layer of deception as Tommie seeks a sip of root beer; David seizes the moment to control the situation, allowing her just a taste, while Foster’s presence emphasizes the precarious line they walk.
Foster’s warning about unfriendly neighbors near the cabin is a grim reminder of the outside world pressing in. One morning, David notices a car approaching and hides Tommie in a closet, instructing her not to be seen. The car belongs to Linny, who has come to keep David company. In a tense sequence, David directs Tommie to run to the back shop as Linny enters; later that night, Tommie asks why Linny called him “David” instead of “Gary”—and he explains that the change is meant to “protect her/us.” When Linny almost discovers Tommie, David improvises, weaving a ghost story about “Emily” to explain away the danger and to buy time.
The suspense deepens as Tommie hides at Foster’s house, and the couple’s private world becomes visible to the outside. Tommie later witnesses David and Linny together, a moment that exposes the lie to her eyes and to the world beyond. In a private confession, David shares a heartbreaking secret with Tommie: his younger brother left home and disappeared as a child, never returning. He begs Tommie to promise not to tell anyone and to always call him “Gary,” cementing a bond that will outlast their trip.
The next morning, Tommie steps into the living room and calls out “Gary,” triggering Linny’s wakefulness and a sudden sense of fear. Linny confronts David, who maintains that “Emily” is a child of his brother who died, a lie meant to protect them both. Linny drives away, unsettled and uncertain, leaving David’s fragile story intact for the moment.
As they prepare to head home, the pair share a fraught, emotion-filled goodbye. They will not see each other again, yet David promises to leave signs—like a broken window or a ribbon in an odd place—so that Tommie can sense his presence when she closes her eyes and remembers the wind and rain from their trip. He suggests that she will be like an apple tree standing in the ashes of all the houses in her city, a haunting image that lingers as they part. The film ends on a heartrending note, with Tommie chasing after David as he drives away, a final moment of longing and uncertainty that leaves the future unresolved and the past heavy with what-ifs.
