A dejected teenager struggles to escape her off-kilter family whose lives are filled with atomic bomb drills, oppressive rules, and addiction in 1950s suburbia.

SYNOPSIS:

Sydney Mitchell is drowning. Her mother, Claire, obsessed with preparing for nuclear war has inadvertently confined herself to the house with a constantly crying newborn, while her father, Henry has reverted to his old friend whiskey to aide in his enforcement of harsh family guidelines. Sydney soon finds refuge in an eccentric feminist and a softhearted outsider whose encouragement results in her signing her father’s signature for a scholarship that promises to take her out of state. But, as her parents slip deeper into their grisly fixations, an unexpected rival and a decline in grades prompts Sydney to ingest copious amounts of pharmaceutical speed to help her study, forcing her into a claustrophobic nightmare where she realizes that she must fight for, not only her freedom, but the freedom of someone she had hoped would never exist.