Michael (Ciarán Hinds), a widower with two children and a dying father-in-law (Jim Norton), is a volunteer at a literary festival in a picturesque seaside town (Cobh, Co Cork). While chaufering festival guests, he meets gothic novelist Lena Morelle (Iben Hjejle), and Nicholas Holden (Aidan Quinn), a bad-tempered, best-selling author in hot pursuit. The awkward love-triangle that emerges between them, however, is interrupted by the dead and dying, with spectral presences continually stalking Michael.

Director Conor McPherson, co-author of the screenplay with playwright Billy Roche, delivers a mature and enigmatic love story tinged with the supernatural in this tightly crafted picture of loss and haunting.

This digital restoration from original 35mm elements has been created by the IFI Irish Film Archive for IFI’s Digital Restoration Project funded by Screen Ireland/Fís Éireann.

Notes by Sunniva O’Flynn