Polly, alone in her remote Maine cabin, senses someone watching while she preps beef stew. Seven-year-old neighbor Sadie appears at the back door asking to help. Polly lets her in, noting the child’s thin frame, dirty clothes, and hunger. They cook together as Polly keeps the radio on, hearing of an approaching snowstorm.

Seeing Sadie’s grime and frayed clothes, Polly offers a bubble bath. While washing Sadie’s things, she notices an angry, hand-shaped bruise on the girl’s upper arm. Drawing on her nursing background and remembering a prior, fruitless CPS report, Polly concludes Mitch likely hurt his daughter. She wrestles with the urge to rescue Sadie but tells herself she cannot.

Polly shampoos Sadie’s hair and promises a French braid, watching the bathwater turn gray with dirt. She plans to feed Sadie and return her home with clean clothes, trying to provide care within the limits she believes she has.

Hank arrives early, pounds on the bathroom door, and demands to know what Polly is doing. Polly blocks the door and explains she is bathing Sadie. Hank offers tacit, disapproving silence, but Polly stands her ground, insisting she will clean the girl and send her home. She recognizes it may invite trouble, yet chooses to help anyway.