故事描述一名开音像店的亿万富翁JohnnyRose（EugeneLevy）和他的肥皂剧明星妻子Moira（CatherineO’Hara）、嬉皮士儿子David（DanielLevy）、交际花女儿Alexis（AnnieMurphy）在一夜之间破产。这家人不得不离开已经习惯了的奢华生活，回到乡下去「从零开始」。好在他们还有一点私人领地：当年他们抱着好玩的心态在最偏僻的角落里买下一座几乎没有人烟的小镇（镇名即本剧标题「施米特湾」），现在这里成了他们仅存的落脚点。他们必须尽快适应新的贫穷生活，找到家庭的真谛……但这个穷乡僻壤的地方让他们感觉「限制」太多！

The day Kelly-Anne has been waiting for has arrived. The trial begins for Ludovic Chevalier, accused of the brutal murder of three underage girls. Unlike most people, Kelly-Anne is fascinated by the man, she becomes obsessed with him and attends every single court hearing in the hope he’ll give her at least a fleeting glance. The border between reality and fantasy starts to blur, however, until Kelly-Anne ceases to be a mere passive observer. Pascal Plante once again expresses an interest in female subjectivity, nevertheless, this time he has come up with an arthouse thriller about the perilous attraction of evil. At the same time, the interplay between what we can and can’t see, and what is explicit and what is conjecture, develops into an almost physical viewing experience.