Writer/director Paul Maunder's second drama after his award-winning Going Up North for a While is a portrait of a woman's mental health crisis. In part one Julie (Denise Maunder) is haunted by her birth mother's breakdown. Her inner monologue narrates events; Julie hopes marriage and a job will "cure" her, and falls pregnant. After a traumatic delivery, she suffers an acute episode and is admitted into care. Part two takes place in a psychiatric hospital where drugs, electroconvulsive therapy and art therapy were standard treatments at the time. Maunder undertook research at Auckland's Kingseat psychiatric hospital.

Discovered to be using illegal drugs by a local policeman, the members of the commune kill him and bury him in their garden. After this pivotal event, distinctions between reality and fantasy become increasingly blurred.

Three young people set off on a road trip from Wellington to find a seal colony.