On a winter night, 12-year-old Emily Hayes is in a car with her mom and dad, driving through the mountains to pick up her younger brother, Navin. Karen, Emily’s mom, complains that they are going to be late, but her dad, David, is unconcerned. As they discuss playing a video game when they arrive, the high beams of an oncoming car make it difficult for David to see. He swerves to avoid a broken-down car that he sees at the last second, sending them careening off the side of the road and down a steep slope. The car rolls down the side of the mountain and eventually lands upside down, blocked by a tree on the edge of the precipice. Emily and her mom are able to climb out of the car, but her dad is pinned in by the dashboard. They try to pull him out but are forced to let go as the car falls over the edge, leaving Emily and Karen bloodied and crying at the edge of the cliff.

Two years later, the family is forced to move into an old family home in the country because they cannot afford their new house in the city after David’s death.