The Weight of Water

On March 5, 1873, Karen Christenson and Anethe Christenson are brutally murdered on Smuttynose Island. Maren Hontvedt survives the attack, while the crime unsettles the Isles of Shoals. Louis Wagner, who briefly boarded with Maren’s family and who had previously tried to seduce her, is later convicted of the murders and executed.

In the wake of the Smuttynose killings, Louis Wagner is arrested and tried for the murders. The case reverberates through New England as the evidence mounts against him. He is ultimately found guilty and hanged for the crime.

In the present, newspaper photographer Jean Janes begins investigating the Smuttynose crimes. She travels to Smuttynose with her husband Thomas, an award-winning poet, along with Rich and his girlfriend Adaline. The group’s dynamic foreshadows tensions that will unfold as the past is revealed.

Jean discovers archived writings apparently authored by Maren Hontvedt. The documents recount Maren’s life on Smuttynose and the events that led to the murders, providing a narrative that interleaves with the present-day investigation.

The narrative in Maren’s papers reveals her relocation from Norway to Smuttynose with her husband John. She endures loneliness and isolation on the remote island while tending the homestead, awaiting some sense of belonging. The setting foregrounds the emotional strain that will influence later events.

Maren’s life on Smuttynose becomes more crowded when her brother Evan arrives with his new wife, Anethe. Maren is wary of Anethe at first, seeing her as a potential rival, while Karen remains stern and suspicious of Maren’s desires.

As Maren struggles with loneliness and her sister Karen’s sternness, she begins to develop a complicated attraction toward Anethe. The closeness between the two women grows, setting the stage for later conflict.

A wounded Louis Wagner, staying in the Hontvedt home, attempts to sexually assault Anethe. The attack heightens the women’s sense of vulnerability and inadvertently draws Maren and Anethe closer together. This incident foreshadows the volatility of relationships on the island.

On the day Evan and John depart the island to Portsmouth to purchase goods, Anethe reveals to Maren and Karen that she is pregnant. The news increases the pressure and isolation the women feel, intensifying the crisis that will follow.

That night, Anethe begs to sleep in the same bed with Maren to cope with their isolation. Karen barges in and misreads the situation as Maren’s hidden bisexuality, then reveals Maren and Evan’s incest to Anethe. In a fury, Maren strikes Karen with a chair, follows Anethe outside and kills her with an axe, drags Anethe’s body inside, and finally kills Karen before fleeing.

At dawn, Maren returns from her flight and implicates Louis Wagner as the killer while she hides in a cove. The island community remains unaware of her guilt until her confession years later, and Wagner’s guilt has already been established by the time the police arrive.

Back in the present, Rich flirts openly with Jean, triggering jealousy in Thomas. A turbulent storm erupts as all four are aboard the yacht, straining relationships and raising the stakes of the unfolding mystery.

In a fit of jealousy, Jean pushes Adaline overboard during the storm. Thomas and Jean dive in to rescue her, but Thomas sacrifices himself and drowns as Jean survives. Adaline is saved, altering the dynamics among the living characters.

In a surreal sequence, Jean encounters both Anethe and Maren underwater before managing to surface again. The eerie vision underscores the film’s blending of past and present, and Jean’s psyche under pressure from jealousy and fear.

The film closes in the 18th century with Maren’s guilt driving her to confess to the murders years after Wagner has already been hanged. However, the courts refuse to accept her confession, choosing to continue to adhere to the original jury verdict rather than re-open the case.