A young portrait restorer, Mr. Lark, is summoned to the isolated Wych Elm House to repair a shrouded painting of a crying child—under oddly strict instructions about solitude and tools. As he lifts the varnish, the work begins to feel less like restoration and more like participation in a ritual the house has rehearsed for generations. Small details—the caretaker’s careful omissions, the gallery’s preserved “childhood,” the way certain brushstrokes seem to resist—hint that the portrait isn’t merely depicting grief, but containing it. When the painting nears completion, Lark reaches a final decision point: finish it as demanded, or commit one defiant change that could shatter whatever is holding the Harrow family’s story together.