[1] Judy and her husband Ed live with their 18-year-old son Jamie in a remote, isolated community at the edge of Stuart Lake, British Columbia.
Despite her illness, Judy attempts to lead a normal life by attending a Parkinson's support group each week to help manage her disease.
Jamie finds it somewhat difficult to fit in with his overly macho co-workers and the testosterone-fuelled environment they create by frequently discussing topics that make him uncomfortable, such as sex and violence, and by relentlessly bullying him.
After returning from her support group one day, Judy finds Ed face down in the water, having suffered a fatal heart attack.
Jamie returns for the funeral and offers to move back home in order to look after Judy but she refuses, telling him he has to go and live his life.
While shopping in town, the cashier, a pregnant 17-year-old girl named Kaly, tells Judy that the store operates a home delivery service should she require it.
He pays a female prostitute to give him oral sex but he does not enjoy it, and he destroys his car windshield in a fit of rage when it won't start.
The next morning, Judy wakes up early and makes her way to the now-frozen lake where she sits down and talks to Ed, wishing him a Merry Christmas.
[4] Shirley Henderson received critical acclaim for her role as Judy, with The Irish Times calling it a "career-best performance" and an "extraordinary, detailed turn".
[5] Similarly, Screen Daily stated that "not only does [Henderson] convincingly embody the relentless motion of Judy's disease, but also encapsulates the dignified resilience of a life lived with the affliction" before going on to say that her performance is a "tour de force which is, at times, devastating to watch".