Dawn Cottrell (Peterson) seems like a typical sixteen-year-old girl, but she has a very dangerous secret. Unable to express her true feelings, whenever Dawn is upset she grabs a knife and cuts herself. Her mother's greatest fear (Young) is that she may one day kill herself. A talented artist Dawn is without friends and relies heavily on her dysfunctional family for support. But her parents have troubles of their own. Dawn discover a potential friend when another art student Lorraine (Taylor Stanley) takes interest in Dawn. Lorraine too is lonely and from a troubled home, she visits a therapist on a regular basis, Dr. Parella (Perlman), but Dawn is resistant to the idea of professional help. After yet another cut, Dawn is rushed to a hospital where the staff insists she see a psychiatrist. Dawn requests it be Dr. Parella, who identifies the disorder and begins therapy. Things get progressively worse in Dawn's home, climaxing at a time when Lorraine too is  hospitalized due to abuse in her own home. When Dawn's mom denies her a visit, she leaves in the middle of the night with dire consequences. It is estimated that one in two hundred girls in the US cut themselves, a disorder diagnosed as an attempt to control emotional pain by inflicting physical pain, a condition with no clear solution but mounting unanswered questions.