Pregnant forensic psychologist Lydie Crane is hired to learn the truth behind the case of 16-year-old Stephanie Daley, who is accused of concealing her pregnancy and murdering her infant.
A quiet teen becomes pregnant when a cute boy shows interest in her at a party. Ashamed and confused by her pregnancy and isolated by her parents' focus on their own troubled relationship, she hides her pregnancy. In a scene which is excruciating to watch, she labors and delivers the infant in a restroom at a ski lodge, and ends its life right there. These events are revealed well into the film, after Stephanie has been accused of and denied that she killed the baby. An additional twist is that the forensic psychologist investigating her case is an older, pregnant Tilda Swinton. The patient and client have parallel family relationships, dominated by strained silences and misunderstandings, and this adds to the tension and explains the mutual, unspoken understanding they share. Stephanie eventually shares the circumstances surrounding the birth with Ms. Swinton's character, and she is ultimately convicted. Little sympathy is shown for her situation, but then, she never tells her whole story, so that in the end those around her are left with only the horror of what she did and no understanding of the angst and pain she has experienced.
