Successful actress Vera Lockman thrashes during a nightmare in which she struggles with, shoots and kills her drug-dealer ex-boyfriend. Jolted awake, she reveals in her journal that the killing actually occurred the day before and that Sal, dead, lies in a trunk in her living room. Leon, Vera’s lover, arrives and is summarily dismissed. Franklin, a filmmaker friend, stops by, concerned. He grills Vera, provoking confusion and a hint of dread. Vera drives the trunk to an isolated area and rolls it into a lake. She returns to her loft and is startled by a narcotics detective, McCutcheon, who asks about Sal. Vera believes that McCutcheon accepts her false story. Later, Vera serves dinner to her mother Elaine and beloved but decaying grandfather Arthur. Carl Icahn, Arthur’s former high school classmate, stops by afterward. Vera and Carl connect emotionally. The next day Vera, calm for the first time, writes. Her mood is shattered by the crescendo of police sirens. She springs to the window and sees McCutcheon. Their eyes meet.