Leandra swims through a submerged prison transport bus, confronting the open eyes of three drowned passengers: Officer Manziel, Officer Downey, and fellow prisoner, Loretta. The bus careened off a cliff after the driver swerved, tumbled down a ravine, and sank into a river. Leandra defines this moment as the end of her in-between period of life.

Despite the swimming skills her father taught her, Leandra struggles after five years of prison confinement. Officer Madison—the one person who has shown Leandra kindness—remains alive but trapped beneath a partition. Leandra tries to free her but Madison signals for Leandra to save herself, then prays and drowns peacefully. Near death herself, Leandra’s survival instinct takes over. She kicks through a hole in the bus and breaks the surface, then crawls onto the riverbank. As October’s chill sets in, she screams at the sky, questioning why her purpose is only to survive while everyone around her dies.

Leandra wakes standing in the river, a stress-triggered sleepwalking behavior that began at age seven. She uses a mantra to ground herself.

Daylight reveals extensive wreckage. Using childhood survival skills, she washes, builds a fire, and burns her prison shirt. She fashions fishing equipment and traps a bluegill, triggering a childhood memory: At eight, she and Lila starved during their father’s absence while their mother engaged in sex work from the home. Leandra memorized the face of one sinister client, Deacon Ridley, somehow knowing she would one day bury him.

In the present, Leandra dives to the bus and retrieves cash from the dead officers’ wallets. She takes Officer Madison’s money and driver’s license, using their resemblance. She packs supplies and whispers goodbye to the dead—and to herself—before leaving, thinking of herself as a “ghost.”

Leandra reveals she had no legal existence until her arrest: Her births went unreported due to her father’s anti-government beliefs. Born on the winter solstice, she spent her childhood as an “invisible” person.

After walking for hours, she reaches the small town of Ninety Six, South Carolina. She buys supplies and changes clothes in the woods. At a motel, a distracted clerk accepts her cash without scrutiny. When asked for a name, she uses “Deborah Madison.” In her room, news coverage shows authorities searching the wrong area for the bus. A flashback reveals Officer Downey had insisted on an unauthorized detour.

Leandra cries, overwhelmed, then resolves not to cry again. After a hot bath, she barricades the door to prevent sleepwalking away. She sleeps.

Leandra knows she must leave South Carolina. At the library, she finds a Greyhound route from Anderson to Meridian, Mississippi. Following advice from a former cellmate, she books an untraceable ticket under an assumed name: Leigh Smith, Lila’s nickname for her.

Walking to Greenwood through the woods, she thinks of Lila’s love for flowers. Two wild dogs attack Leigh; she fights them off but sustains injuries. In Greenwood, an elderly woman lends her a phone, and calls a taxi to ride to Anderson. While waiting outside a Walmart, her period unexpectedly starts. She manages with toilet paper, then boards the bus. When the driver requests her license, she lies about an abusive boyfriend and shows her bruises from the bus crash. He relents, and the bus leaves.

Leigh wakes to smoke filling the bus, which has broken down. During a chaotic evacuation, she hurts her injured wrist. With no money for a hotel and hours to wait for a replacement bus near Camden, Alabama, she walks to a campground and sleeps outside.

In the morning, the elderly campground owner Walt wakes her. Leigh finds she has missed the replacement bus. Overhearing that his regular cleaner is absent, Leigh offers to work. Walt agrees and, impressed with her work, offers her a temporary job at $400 a week plus a free cabin. When she hesitates, he asks if she is fleeing whoever bruised her face. She nods, and he assures her she is safe.

A week later, at a Saturday farmers market, Leigh is captivated by flowers in a blue truck and is mistaken for the vendor. The actual vendor, Jackson Shepherd, appears. He is large, handsome, and feels immediately familiar to her. He asks what she sees in the flowers and she shares a memory of Lila. When he offers a bouquet and urges her to take it, the gesture reminds her of Deacon Ridley from her childhood dangling candy as manipulation. She rejects everything and walks away.

At the local grocery store, a cashier recognizes Leigh, making her realize she is unsafe in town. The next day, a bouquet from Jackson arrives at the campground office. Walt explains Jackson owns the Flower Farm in Gee’s Bend, a small, remote community with poor cell service. Leigh decides this is an ideal hiding place.

On the ferry to Gee’s Bend, a passenger tells her about the area’s Civil Rights history, including the ferry’s four-decade closure to suppress Black voters. She learns the community has a population of only 208. Finding the Flower Farm, she is captivated by its extensive fields. Young farmhand Luke invites her to help clear annuals before the first frost and the physical labor reconnects her to the earth. Jackson arrives and Luke’s teasing makes Leigh laugh genuinely for the first time in years. She lets Jackson drive her back to the campground.

In the truck, Jackson asks some personal questions. Though guarded, Leigh reveals some truths. When he asks about the bruise on her face, she grows defensive, but the tension breaks into playful banter. He invites her to a town hall meeting and, when she asks if he is afraid, says he no longer is. His confession of vulnerability stirs unfamiliar feelings. At the campground, he calls after her, expecting thanks. She only says good night.