Thirteen year-old Vanessa Townsend's parents are separated, her mother is an alcoholic, her father is a control freak, and there is no one looking after her younger brother and twin sisters. After her mother goes on a drunken binge at a Christmas party and ruins the holidays for her siblings, Vanessa decides to lock her in the sauna to forcibly dry her out. After weeks of captivity her mother slowly moves past anger and more towards understanding her childrens' need to take such drastic action against her.