Katherine Coleridge (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) is a basically miserable and mentally unstable woman who is married to even-aged Isobel's father, Robert (Peter Whitaker), who is the only one willing to give Katherine the unconditional love that she craves lest her inner chaos should wholly consume her. For any kind of peace of mind, she is consequently entirely dependent on him. As, however, her husband dies (of natural causes), Katherine quite instinctively transfers her primal need for all-encompassing care to his daughter, Isobel (Juliet Stevenson). As this is a serious intrusion upon her and her boyfriend's private life, Isobel rejects Katherine, at first. She soon realizes that Katherine needs her attention more than her boyfriend, whom she then opts to leave, to go and live with Katherine in her father's countryside cottage. The last scenes of the movie, not to be revealed here, raises the question of who, after all, were the more needful of Isobel's love.