Contemporary artist Elaine Risley returns to Toronto, the city of her childhood, for an exhibition dedicated to her art. Suddenly absorbed by vivid images from the past, she thinks about the three girls who introduced her to the cruel world of childhood games, into a world of secret friendship, longing and betrayal. Elaine is tormented by the past, and therefore she cannot find peace in the present, which seems illusory, like patterns under the smooth surface of a glass ball.