[2] In the mid-1960's, John Skillpa (Cillian Murphy), a quiet bank clerk living alone in tiny Peacock, Nebraska, prefers to live an invisible life in order to hide his secret: He has dissociative identity disorder, the implied result of childhood trauma inflicted by his abusive mother.

One day while he is using the outside yard clothesline as Emma, a freight train caboose derails and crashes into John's backyard.

Forced to fool the town into believing John and Emma are husband and wife, they must maintain their secret while in public view.

The town mayor, Ray Crill (Keith Carradine), and his wife Fanny (Susan Sarandon) come to see John try to host a political rally in his backyard in support of the incumbent candidate for the federal elections for senator.

Fanny runs a women's shelter in the small town of 800, and convinces Emma to hold the rally in order to raise funds for her organization.

She wants to move out of the town with her son Jake (Flynn Milligan) in order to seek new opportunities, but is unable to procure the funds to do so.

Casting calls for extras and other minor roles were made in the Des Moines, Iowa area in April 2008.