The death of Isaac's father in suburban Sydney reveals a deep schism in his family and prompts his return to the family homeland and its deadly legacy.

In his parents' village in Greece, Isaac learns something of his father's cursed history. At first he dismisses the revelation as superstitious nonsense.

But over the course of his travels through Europe - from Greece to Paris to Budapest - Isaac is forced to confront the antisemitism of the past, the bigotry embedded deep in the bones of Europe and the nature of inherited guilt and secrets.

As his mind and body start to fall apart and a strange state of possession manifests itself, Isaac struggles against the ghosts of the past as they find new forms in the spectres of Europe's contemporary outcasts.

Only when he succumbs to madness in Budapest, surrounded by the darkest side of human nature, does he finally acknowledge both his family's curse, and the ties of blood and history that flow through all our veins.