Southold, New York, 1843: Young Mary, blood trickling from behind the blindfold tied around her eyes, is interrogated about the events surrounding her grandmother's death. As the story jumps back, we witness Mary, raised in a repressively religious household, finding fleeting happiness in the arms of Eleanor, the home's maid. Her family, who believe they are seeing, speaking, and acting on God's behalf, view the girls' relationship as an abomination, to be dealt with as severely as possible. The couple attempts to carry on in secret, but someone is always watching, or listening, and the wages of perceived sin threaten to become death, with the tension only heightened by the arrival of an enigmatic stranger and the revelation of greater forces at work.