The road to reintegrating society is a long, winding and perilous one, as Francine knows all too well. She gets out of prison. With no resources or support, she decides to take refuge in a small cottage near a lake. She finds a series of odd jobs, but isn’t able to hold down any of them. Taciturn and reserved, Francine has difficulty forming relationships with the people she meets. She feels much more comfortable around animals, showing them unconditional love by constantly petting them. Her family of cats and dogs grows to the point that her home is becoming unhygienic. She winds up finding a job as an assistant at an animal clinic where, among other things, she has to cremate dead pets—a task that threatens the fragile balance she has been able to maintain since leaving the penitentiary. Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky draw on their documentary experience to deliver their first hyperrealistic fiction film in which they closely follow a heroine whose lack of social skills is a serious impediment. This unsettling drama eschews all artifice to lay bare the attempts of an alienated, emotionally deprived woman to put her life back together.