At an elder care facility in Wisconsin, an orderly and Iraq War medical unit veteran named Francis Gough discovers the dead body of an elderly nun named Sister Mary Alphonsus in a bed with her face wrapped in gauze. After her death, it is discovered that Sister Mary died without a will. During her life before the elder care facility, Sister Mary was the mother superior of a Catholic orphanage called the Craigmillnar Home for Children. The orphanage had a poor reputation, until it was shut down by health authorities in 1977 due to widespread neglect and varying forms of abuse. During her time in the elder care facility, Sister Mary was regularly attended to by Francis. Francis remembers a conversation he had in a pub, before Sister Mary's death, with his father Douglas and uncle Denis. Douglas and Denis were both committed to Craigmillnar as children and lost their younger brother Patrick there. Francis's father and uncle describe a litany of abuses and cruelty they and other children endured at Craigmillnar. Francis recalls how he murdered Sister Mary in revenge of his father's and uncle's trauma and loss of their younger brother under Sister Mary's cruelty. In the quiet aftermath of Sister Mary's murder, Francis collects her old belongings, which include intimate letters and photographs with another nun, and burns them. In case he is interrogated by a medical examiner, Francis prepares a statement which he memorizes in his head.