英国郊区,一家人搬到一幢黑色的公寓中。父亲(Hanns Zischler 饰)在修葺院子时猝死,母亲(Sinéad Cusack 饰)则自此患病,每况愈下。为了不使四个孩子被福利机构领走,母亲坚持不去医院,最终郁郁离开人世。长子杰克(Andrew Robertson 饰 )与长女朱莉(Charlotte Gainsbourg 夏洛特•甘斯布 饰)将母亲的尸体偷偷沉进水泥之中,带着弟妹汤姆(Ned Birkin 饰)和苏(Alice Coulthard 饰)独自生活。 四姐弟的生活虽然艰苦,却自由自在。杰克更与朱莉发展出一段禁忌之恋……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.