Johanna, 13, has fallen in love with Christian, the 15-year-old son of the school's physical education teacher. It's her first experience of the kind and she's just beginning to negotiate the complexities of her feelings when her absent father returns home. And with him two other, unwelcome inhabitants of the house: violence and fear. Though her mother Erika's injuries mount, Johanna is under strict orders: what happens in the house must stay in the house. Meanwhile Johanna's love story continues. But her new love comes with mixed feelings. Is it always like this? Is love always entangled with guilt?