故事开始于苏格兰的一个小小渔村中，二十三年前，还是天真单纯的少女的乔治（格列塔·斯卡奇 Greta Scacchi 饰）来到此地，这里的一切都让她觉得新奇。在村子里，乔治邂逅了名为嘉文（文森特·多诺费奥 Vincent D'Onofrio 饰）的少年。终日不降的气温让两个年轻人之间的爱火很快就被点燃，然而，这段感情却并没能够顺利的开花结果，等待着他们的，是分离的结局。 一晃眼多年过去，乔治和嘉文都经历了他们各自的感情生活。乔治离婚后再度联系上了嘉文，爱火重燃的两人终于意识到他们是彼此最重要的人。然而，这段迟到的感情却并没有一帆风顺。二十三年后，乔治等到的只有嘉文冰冷的墓碑。

After the death of her husband, the mother of Julie, Jack, Sue and Tom begins to suffer from a mysterious illness. Aware that she is going to have to go into hospital she opens a bank account for the children, so that they can be financially self-sufficient and will be able to avoid being taken into care by the authorities. Unfortunately she also dies and Julie and Jack (the older, teenage children) decide to hide her body in the basement so that they can have free reign of their household. Soon Tom has taken to dressing as a girl whilst Sue has become increasingly reticent, confiding only to her diary, meanwhile Jack and Julie sense an attraction developing for each other. However Julie's new beau, Derek, threatens to unearth the many dark secrets within this family as he becomes increasingly suspicious of Jack.