Ann (Sarah Polley) is a hard working mother with two young daughters, a husband (Scott Speedman) who spends more time unemployed than working, a mother (Deborah Harry) with a history of broken dreams and a father who has spent the last ten years in jail. She lives with her family in a tiny trailer in her mother’s backyard. Somehow, she keeps her head above water: surviving but not “living.” After collapsing one day, she goes in for a medical check-up, where a shy doctor tells her some shocking news. She tells no one, determined to shield her daughters from the truth and at the same time to take control of her life and to make the most out of it.

Ann chalks her weak pallor up to a case of anemia. In private, Ann makes a list of things she had always wanted to accomplish in her life but never had the time. Suddenly, Ann’s life opens up, and the life force that was nascent in this 23 year-old, working-class woman blooms into a quiet yet steely determination. Burdened with her secret but liberated by her new sense of control, Ann’s emotional journey leads her to unexpected places and gives her life new meaning: the tender moments, the volatile emotions she must keep inside, the recognition that she has the power to understand, examine and fully live her own life.