At the behest of his dutiful sister Sally (Rachel Griffiths), Ned Kendall (Ben Mendelsohn), 40, reluctantly returns to the isolated family homestead after a 20-year absence because his cantankerous and bullying father, Bruce (Bryan Brown), is dying. Ned has dragged his 21-year-old fiancée, Toni (Maeve Dermody), along to act as a lipstick-coated suit of armor and agent provocateur against his father.  Incendiary memories of the past are what Ned must guard against, however, and in this he fails. Conflicting and painful recollections of his twin sister’s passing as a teenager and the subsequent death of his brother demand attention, but revisiting these traumas does little to calm the stormy waters between father and son. Guilt-ridden flashbacks fraught with emotional violence and taboo sexuality are set to haunt Ned until he can face his father head on. Each man has a lifetime of pain that only the other can help reconcile. Based on the novel by Newton Thornburg.