In 1950, Flannery (Maya Hawke) visits her mother (Laura Linney) in Georgia when she is diagnosed with lupus at twenty-four years old. Struggling with the same disease that took her father's life when she was a child and desperate to make her mark as a great writer, Flannery enters a crisis that will pitch her mind into a feverish exploration of her catholic belief, causing the lines between reality, imagination, and faith to blur.