That Cold Day in the Park

Frances notices a nineteen-year-old boy sitting in the rain in a nearby park and invites him inside her Vancouver apartment. She runs a bath for him and provides a meal, treating him with quiet care. The boy does not speak, but he seems to understand her, so she decides to shelter him.

Frances prepares a bed in the spare room and spends time with the boy. When night falls, she quietly locks the door to keep him inside. The boy remains passive, conveying compliance rather than distress.

The next day Frances goes out to buy him new clothes, treating him as someone she wants to care for. Her protective instinct grows, and she becomes more attached. The boy continues to be silent, though his gaze follows her.

That night the boy slips away through the spare room window to visit his parents and younger siblings. Afterwards he goes to Nina's houseboat to seek refuge and explain what happened. He remains coherent when with Nina and Nick, hinting at his ability to speak when not with Frances.

Nina explains to Nick and the boy that he can speak but often goes mute around people. They share homemade cookies baked with cannabis, and the mood lightens as they become affectionate toward him.

The next day the boy returns bearing more cookies, and Frances invites him inside. Mrs. Parnell, Frances's maid, remarks that the cookies are burnt, but Frances opens an expensive bottle of wine to accompany them. The moment deepens Frances's attachment toward him.

Frances engages in one-sided conversations and begins flirting with him, enjoying his quiet attention. The growing closeness feels intimate yet unsettling as she projects her desires onto him.

That evening Frances leaves to join friends at a lawn bowls gathering. In her absence, Nina enters via the spare room window, takes a bath, and pulls her half-dressed brother into the water. The boundary between care and intrusion becomes blurred.

During the day, Frances gets a contraceptive diaphragm at a local clinic and returns with friends. Charles, a doctor from the group, accompanies her home and makes romantic and sexual advances toward her. She refuses him, calling him old and unappealing, and he leaves.

Back in the spare room, Frances tells the boy about Charles’s persistence. For years he has wanted to make love to her, but she insists she’s not attracted to him. She lies down and asks the boy to have sex with her, only to discover that no one else is there and the shape under the bed is made of dolls.

The boy wakes to find all doors and windows nailed shut, effectively trapping him inside. Frances apologizes but insists that she wants things to stay as they are, then leaves to go to a bar. The sense of confinement and control tightens around him.

Frances notices a woman sitting alone and invites her to spend the night with the boy, but the woman becomes upset. The scene heightens the sense that Frances will not relinquish control, regardless of the consequences.

A man overhears and helps Frances find Sylvia, a prostitute, at a nearby diner. The discovery sets in motion Frances's plan to keep the boy contained and unchallenged.

Frances locks Sylvia in the spare room with the boy and listens through the door as they have sex. She bursts in and stabs Sylvia through the heart, killing her. The boy is left desperate to escape but finds no easy exit.

As the credits roll, Frances kisses the boy repeatedly and tells him she wants him to make love to her while he remains in a horrified state. The film ends with her holding him in a tense, controlling embrace, blurring the line between guardian and captor.