Before she made history at the 94th Academy Awards when she won Best Director for The Power of the Dog (2021), as the oldest female director to win, the first woman to win Academy Awards for both directing and screenwriting in her different films, and the first woman not to win Best Picture after winning Best Director, Jane Campion came up with this contemporary dark comedy.

Dawn (Geneviève Lemon), who goes by Sweetie, is plump, lively and somewhat delusional, standing in sharp contrast to her wiry and gloomy sister, Kay (Karen Colston), a sullen factory worker. Kay is pulled out of her day-to-day existence by Dawn's return to their town, and the girls attempt to reconnect with their parents, Flo (Dorothy Barry) and Gordon (Jon Darling), who are undergoing serious marital problems. As the family spends time together, their many issues rise to the surface.