Sara is 20 living in a state of perpetual terror, consulting the tarot for comfort which doesn't come. SHe hasn't left the family home for the past five years. Her father, Gus is a painter of eratic genius with an easy charm for women. Her stepmother got bored and left them all: Gus, Sara, her brothers Steve and the twins, and her own wayward daughter Teresa. Then one terrible storm whipped night Gus doesn't come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face, astonishingly, he is still alive.