After suffering a brutal rape, Marie (Katharina Wressnig) becomes agoraphobic, refusing to leave her house and remaining oblivious to events in the outside world. Though young women are being found dead and mutilated on local freeways, Marie takes in boarders, one of whom is Tom (Peter Sarsgaard), a cryptic young man who works as a cook on an offshore oil rig. Despite Marie's paranoid musings — Tom begins lugging around garbage bags and locking the kitchen door to cook various meat dishes — the two form a relationship. This relationship is first interrupted by the arrival of Marie's flirtatious sister Mignon (Angeline Ball) and then by Tom's sudden disappearance. Ironically, his absence gives Marie the ability to finally leave the house and thus get on with her life.