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Marianne is eight years old when her mother goes missing.  Left behind with her baby brother & grieving father in a ramshackle house on the edge of a small village, she clings to the fragmented memories of her mother’s love; the smell of fresh herbs, the games they played, & the songs and stories of her childhood.  As time passes, Marianne struggles to adjust, fixated on her mother’s disappearance & the secrets she’s sure her father is keeping from her. Discovering a medieval poem called Pearl & trusting in its promise of consolation, Marianne sets out to make a visual illustration of it, a task that she returns to over & over but somehow never manages to complete.  

Tormented by an unmarked gravestone in an abandoned chapel & the tidal pull of the river, her childhood home begins to crumble as the past leads her down a path of self-destruction. But can art heal Marianne? And will her own future as a mother help her find peace?

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