Paul (Macfadyen), a prize winning war journalist, returns to his remote New Zealand hometown due to the death of his dad, Battlescarred along with world-weary. For the discontented sixteen-year-old Celia (Barclay) he opens up a world she has only wanted. She actively pursues a friendship with him, fascinated by his cynicism and experience of the world outside her existence. But most, including the members of both their loved ones (Otto, Moy), depending on the friendship and when Celia goes missing, Paul becomes the increasingly loathed and persecuted prime suspect in her disappearance. While the violent and urgent truth gradually emerges, Paul is forced to confront the family tragedy and betrayal he ran from as a youth, and to face the grievous consequences of silence and secrecy that has surrounded his entire adult life.