The setting is rural Devon. Shots of angry waves smashing against rocks have an obvious symbolism. The weather is never less than foul. A mood of lonely, sombre, brooding despair hangs about the dark, cheaply-furnished rooms of the isolated cottage. Sex is cold and ugly.
Life has no meaning.
The one sweet thing is Alice, a newborn baby, who gets sick. The family is from London. Why they have decided to live in the middle of nowhere, where the teenage kids, Jessie and Tom, are so miserable they can hardly speak, is not elucidated. The cycle of anguish is complete. There is no explanation.