You Need to Know

On Christmas Eve, Jill and her three grown sons drive in convoy toward the family holiday house, wives and children in tow. Beneath the surface, everyone is carrying something they would rather keep hidden. Mimi is drowning in the exhaustion of new twins and leaning too hard on a nightly glass of wine. Andrea has begun to doubt her marriage. Darren is rattled by an unexpected request. And Callie, the teenager, has grown quietly withdrawn.

Then a car accident on the road shatters them all. In its aftermath, it becomes clear that someone unexpected was in one of the cars — someone no one is looking for, and whose time is running out.

Nicola Moriarty tells the story through short vignettes at the scene of the crash that gradually converge with a present-day narrative voiced in turn by Jill, Mimi, Andrea, and Darren. The result is a dark domestic drama about the secrets families keep, the lies that hold them together, and the tragic mistakes that surface when the pressure finally breaks.