Is holding a dog’s severed ear in your hand the result of one person’s depravity, or a catalyst, supplanting self-loathing with fortitude and purpose?
When Jake, demoralised by the amputation of his leg, surprises himself by befriending a vagrant, he can little suspect the key to the man’s past lies in his own rural idyll on the Jurassic Coast. Here too, a confused young Irishman, with an unusual gift of communication with animals, comes to terms with his violent past and his sexuality. Rosa, who was beginning to wonder if she was paying the price for hastening her husband’s death, finds befriending the young man brings unexpected consequences. And then the sordid business of disappearing dogs comes to their door.