The story is told through the eyes of Ursula, an out of work actress, who is drifting through life. She is haunted by her past and, in particular, the fateful summer spent with her eccentric family as a teenager at a wild and remote farmhouse, Candelo, on the south coast of Australia where she first falls in love. The holiday ends in disaster: a terrible accident takes place that changes all their lives. Ursula must confront the past and come to terms with truths about herself, and her family, before she can move on and truly exist in the the present.