What Happens in Die, My Love?
The complete story of Die, My Love, from the first scene to the last, in 493 words (about 2 minutes). Spoilers throughout.
Spoilers ahead
Jackson’s uncle leaves his Montana home to him after his death. Jackson decides to move there from New York with his pregnant girlfriend, Grace. Soon after the couple moves in, Grace gives birth to a baby boy. While initially happy and playful in their rural abode, Grace and Jackson begin to have problems. He is away at work for long periods, and her feelings of boredom, loneliness, and abandonment worsen when she finds condoms in his car and assumes he has been sleeping with other women.
In the months leading up to the baby’s birth, Jackson’s father, Harry, passes away. During a conversation with Jackson’s mother, Pam, now a widow, Grace learns that Jackson’s uncle had died by suicide inside the couple’s home by shooting himself. To Grace’s chagrin, Jackson brings home an untrained, constantly barking dog without any prior discussion. One night, after the dog is injured in a car accident, she demands that Jackson shoot it. When Jackson refuses, saying he will take it to the vet the next day, Grace shoots it herself.
As time goes on, Grace’s behavior grows erratic. She walks around with knives, begins an affair with a married stranger who drives by the house on a motorcycle, and throws herself through a glass door. In the midst of all this, Grace and Jackson fight continuously, leading Grace to spin out and react more intensely. Despite their constant fighting, Jackson asks Grace to marry him.
The wedding and reception start off well, but as the night continues, Jackson rebuffs Grace when she repeatedly asks him to kiss her and leaves her to dance on her own. In the bridal suite without Jackson, Grace has a concierge sing and play guitar for her in her hotel room. She bashes her head into a mirror and walks home on foot in the morning with the baby in a stroller. Jackson finds her and commits Grace to a psychiatric institution. The psychiatrist suggests that she has abandonment issues that stem from the death of her parents when she was a child. When a seemingly improved Grace is released, she learns that Jackson has cleaned, remodeled, and repainted the house, been given a new car, and named their baby Harry, after his deceased father.
When the family hosts a welcome-back party for Grace, she snaps after hearing how “healthy” and “well” she looks and tries to leave. Jackson takes her on a drive, during which she expresses that she does not want to go back and that Jackson does not see her. When they reach a stopping point, they sit in silence for some time, before Grace kisses Jackson and says, “Enough,” walking into the nearby forest. Grace sets fire to the book she had been writing. She leaves the journal to burn while she removes her dress. Jackson realizes that something is wrong and runs into the forest just in time to see Grace walk into the rapidly spreading fire.
