Splinter and Spine

Former celebrated medical practitioner Grim lives in absolute isolation in the Alaskan interior after a tragic error destroyed his career. His self imposed exile ends when nomadic photojournalist Cleo Vance crashes her snowmobile on his property during a brutal blizzard and suffers a severe spinal fracture. Forced to use his forbidden skills, Grim builds Cleo a rigid corset of birch and elk hide to heal her, but soon begins hiding their only satellite phone to enforce her psychological dependency. As weeks pass inside the claustrophobic cabin, a dark game of control and surrender unfolds when Grim realizes Cleo discovered the working phone long ago but chose to stay silent. Trapped in a prison built by mutual deceptions, the two liars navigate a dangerous and intense attraction that shatters the medical boundaries Grim swore never to cross again.