The repercussions of a relationship that becomes physically abusive send both the victim and the offender down psychologically troubling paths as both begin to discover hidden truths about themselves that perhaps should never have been unearthed.

SYNOPSIS:

Having lost her job after knowing too much about a sexual harassment lawsuit, TESS MONAGHAN begins to relapse into some of her old depressive habits. WILL PIERCE, her boyfriend, watches as her motivation and self-control start to decline. The more WILL pushes her to find work, the more he begins to regard her depression as just an excuse. When he confronts her about this, TESS snaps. Their argument escalates to a point where WILL becomes so pissed he slaps TESS and she leaves the apartment threatening to call the cops.

Apart, the two struggle with the repercussions of the abusive incident. TESS, who has booked a room at a nearby hotel, meets MANNI, a woman who's been through a similar relationship and has the scars to prove it. She is dark, sensual and independent: a vision of who TESS wants to emulate and the kind of person who she desires to be with. MANNI takes TESS under her wing and encourages her to discover what truly makes her happy, even if that means living more erratically. As TESS gives into her vices, WILL is fighting his own battles. Since the moment he hit TESS, he has had an image of his younger self, bruised and crying, flashing through his mind. Seeking guidance from TESS's therapist, WILL fearfully attempts to unravel the convoluted, repressed memories of his past. WILL comes to realize that resorting to abuse was not a random mistake but a learned behavior. The more he pieces together, the more he desperately needs TESS. But, the more wild TESS's new lifestyle becomes, the more she craves the independence.

TESS's choices have negative consequences, however, and in a manner of days she becomes a person she no longer recognizes. MANNI does her best to convince her that this is the only way to move on and to heal, but TESS is torn. WILL on the other hand, is at war with his forgotten memories. Someone abused him as a child but it is unclear who. He needs TESS to return home, but the more he thinks of TESS, the more he recalls the horror on her face when she left and the more frequent the memory of himself pervades his mind.

WILL distraught, gets close to black out drunk until finally he triggers his full memory to return to him and realizes he was not abused by his father as he assumed: it was his estranged mother. That same night, TESS attempts to move on from WILL with another man, but in a cross-faded haze and under the seductive influence of a very jealous MANNI, TESS comes close to killing her new lover. Confused and scared, she leaves MANNI behind and runs back to WILL.

The two try and go back to life as it was before the incident but ignoring the past does not sit well with TESS. It’s not until WILL verbally lashes out at her in public that TESS realizes the kind of man he truly is. TESS returns to MANNI who convinces her to seize the opportunity to make sure WILL never hurts another woman as he has hurt TESS. She devises a plan to apologize to Will and invites him home for makeup sex. TESS, teases and taunts him and when she has him at his most vulnerable, she pins him down and tortures him within an inch of his life. MANNI, who has been in the room the whole time, screams at her to finish what she’s begun but TESS breaks. She cannot do it. It’s at that moment she realizes MANNI is not there. She never was. WILL passes out and TESS is left in the mess she’s made.

TESS ends up institutionalizing herself. Doctors realize she’s been misdiagnosed and the past week she’s been having an extreme manic episode brought on by the abuse of her ex. Although it may seem she has lost everything, TESS is finally free and WILL is left scarred.

CONCOMITANT