It's the day before Christmas Eve, 1983. Colleen, a failed English PhD student turned stock trader, is tired of her superficial, drug-ridden lifestyle in the circles of high-society Los Angeles. She is to be married the next day, but can't go through with it. Impulsively, she destroys her wedding cake, packs a suitcase, and books the first overseas flight she can find — to Dublin, Ireland. Traumatized by the loss of her father and brother in a coastal storm near her childhood home in Grays Harbor, Washington, Colleen feels she is cursed to never find happiness. In her move to Ireland, she resolves to live a quieter life. She stays in a Dublin bed & breakfast owned by a drab woman named Bridget Donnelly, and joins an American tour group. At the inn, she meets Bridget's brother, Joe Donnelly, who immediately sweeps her off her feet with his charms and good looks. Joe is an international computer specialist with apartments in Germany and London. Joe and Colleen hit it off, and Colleen wants desperately to impress him with her intellect and wit. The two talk for hours and sleep together, and Colleen is astounded by the intensity of their intimacy. The next morning, instead of continuing with the American tour, Joe promises to show Colleen around the country. The two travel the country for five days. Colleen is enamored with Joe and feels anything is possible in this new land of rain and writers. She notices that Joe sometimes slips into periods of brooding silence, but doesn't think much of it. In various pubs, Colleen meets many of Joe's childhood "chums," who swap old stories and sometimes make odd remarks which Joe doesn't explain. On a visit to some ancient ruins, Colleen balances on a stone wall, cliffs on one side, Joe on the other. Joe calls Colleen down, and proposes marriage to her.Colleen accepts, and envisions a life of love and adventure, where she pictures herself as an accomplished, intellectual wife. Joe says they must marry the next day, as he is afraid Colleen will leave him at the altar as she did her previous fiance. Joe says they will marry in Dublin, then stop in London, then start a new life in America. The two are married in a small ceremony. The next night, they go to take a ferry across the Irish Sea, but find out there that are storm warnings, and the ferry will not run. Joe, intent to leave that night, gathers a group of passengers and convinces the captain to go through the storm. The seas are rough, and Colleen is afraid and seasick, plagued with memories of the storm that killed her father and brother. While she and the other passengers huddle in the belly of the boat, Joe, oddly, stays on deck. When she goes to check on him, she sees him talking with a man she doesn't recognize, and wearing a raincoat she's never seen before. Finally, the boat docks, and Joe hurries her off the boat in silence. As they rush to the car, Colleen confronts Joe about his odd behavior, but he brushes her off, and tells her that he feels sick. Colleen berates him, as she is stricken with shame at the angry-wife role she feels she has stepped into. In the car, she notices a small metal suitcase she doesn't recognize. The two reach a grungy hotel, where Joe rents a room and immediately begins to vomit, claiming he has the flu. Suddenly, there is a loud explosion and the windows of the room shatter. Colleen is knocked to the floor. She cowers there, silently, deathly afraid of her new husband, and curses her lot. The two sit in silence until police come and take them both to the station. There, the police recognize Joe, and Colleen learns that the whole Donnelly family has a criminal record — Joe's brother, who she thought was dead, is at large, and Bridget sells explosives. Joe tries to use his marriage with Colleen as an alibi. Colleen is living her childhood nightmare: defenseless, imprisoned, in the dark. Finally, Joe is dragged into a cell, and Colleen is left alone.