Martha is struggling to restore some stability in her life, which has been in turmoil since her husband walked out on the family to join his pregnant girlfriend. She takes in a lodger, an asylum seeker, who fled Afghanistan but cannot escape the violence which pervades his dreams. An undemanding friendship grows between Martha and Ismail but how well does she really know the stranger in her attic? When a local girl disappears; a girl who visited Ismail’s room, Martha realises her house is not a place of safety.