SYNOPSIS

Bobby Ann McDaniel is a 40-year-old indie folk musician in Pittsburgh who works at Rebel Records, a small vinyl shop on the South Side. After eighteen years of playing to near-empty rooms, she has stopped writing new material and drifted into a numb routine — sorting other people's records by day, performing her old songs to indifferent crowds at The Furnace on Thursday nights. Her closest relationship is with Paloma, the bartender who watches over her with quiet devotion neither of them has named. A chance encounter with her ex, Alma — now married with a newborn, visibly thriving — sharpens the ache of a life that feels stalled.

After attending a sold-out show by Mei Fang, a younger musician from the same scene who recently got signed, Bobby Ann meets Virginia, a warm, talkative woman at the bar. They go home together. In bed afterward, Virginia pushes Bobby Ann on why she hasn't broken through — comparing her unfavorably to Mei Fang, diagnosing her as too controlled, too in her own head. Bobby Ann strangles her.

That night, alone in her apartment, Bobby Ann picks up her guitar and writes the best song of her life. The creative block that has defined her for years is simply gone. The music pours out — raw, unguarded, alive in a way it never was before. She plays the new song, "Outrun," at The Furnace the following Thursday, and for the first time, the room stops and listens. Paloma sees something in Bobby Ann that she has never seen before. A man with a laptop asks who she is.

But the breakthrough doesn't last. Within days, Bobby Ann is blocked again — performing "Outrun" like a copy of itself, unable to write anything new. She visits Galaxy, a larger venue, hoping to book a slot, and is politely turned away by the manager, Lottie Voss. She attempts to attack a sex worker named Candy, who escapes. She beats an old man to death outside a bar with a tire iron. Neither act unlocks anything. The creative engine has a rule Bobby Ann doesn't yet understand: only unintentional, unforced killing produces the breakthrough. Violence pursued deliberately yields nothing.

When Mei Fang returns to Rebel Records and, in a moment of genuine kindness, offers to help Bobby Ann's career, Bobby Ann kills her with a guitar string after closing. She disposes of the body in the Monongahela River. That night, the music returns — darker, more powerful. She writes "Swimming Pool in Winter," and her performances at The Furnace begin drawing real attention. Meanwhile, Detective Dario Ferrari investigates the deaths of Virginia and the disappearance of Lottie Voss, initially focused on Allen Alda, a club owner with drug connections. Mei's death — a signed artist with no ties to Alda's world — forces Ferrari to widen his inquiry. Her phone records place her at Rebel Records the day she vanished, and Ferrari comes to the shop to question Bobby Ann and her coworkers.

Bobby Ann answers his questions calmly. Her coworkers corroborate the timeline she offers — Mei came in, browsed, bought a record, and left. Ferrari notices the cuts on Bobby Ann's hands. She explains them as a guitar-string accident. He leaves his card.

As Bobby Ann's music improves and her reputation grows, Paloma draws closer — spending a night at Bobby Ann's apartment, noticing the stack of filled notebooks, sensing that something in Bobby Ann has shifted. Late that night, unable to sleep, Paloma reads the notebooks. What she finds in the lyrics — a steel string around a throat, a body in the river, the color of someone's nails in the dark — is too precise to be imagination. She confronts Bobby Ann. Bobby Ann denies it, then can't. Paloma moves for the door. Bobby Ann hits her with a wine bottle and strangles her.

Galaxy calls. Bobby Ann gets the showcase slot she wanted. She plays to a real room with real lights and a real sound booth. The songs are technically identical to the ones that silenced The Furnace. But the music is dead. Nobody stops talking. Nobody puts down their phone. The creative engine that killing unlocked has been destroyed by the one kill that mattered — the deliberate murder of the person who loved her most.

The film ends where it began. Gigi — the young woman from the opening scene — walks into Rebel Records, buys some vinyl, and invites Bobby Ann over for coffee. Bobby Ann accepts. The cycle is ready to begin again.