Mahalia Belo's feature debut, based on Megan Hunter's novel of the same name, follows an unnamed, pregnant woman (Comer), whose water breaks the same day that London gets flooded and millions of people are forced to flee the city.
With her husband R (Joel Fry) and their newborn baby Zeb, the family finds refuge in R's parents' (Mark Strong and Nina Sosanya) countryside home. However, the lack of resources and the escalating tensions destroy their safe haven.
After R's parents' tragic deaths (the mother is accidentally killed while trying to help other refugees, the father takes his own life shortly afterwards), the couple is forced to travel by road, searching for a place to stay.
They find a secure community, but only Woman and Zeb are allowed in, so they decide to separate for the sake of their baby's safety.
There, Woman meets another lonely young mother, O (Katherine Waterston), who becomes her travel companion when they are pushed, once again, to find shelter elsewhere.
After travelling through the UK countryside for a while, a journey that included a fun dancing night with a stranger (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), Woman and O find their way to a commune on a peaceful island.
The commune's leader, a woman named F (Gina McKee), encourages the group to start a new life there. She insists that forgetting about their former lives will help them move forward, as well as adopting a sustainable way of life in light of the environmental disaster the country just experienced.
However, as much as she tries, Woman cannot forget about her home in London, and the possibility of her husband being alive somewhere out there. We see some flashbacks of their relationship, and those memories seem to push the protagonist towards a difficult decision.
Woman decides to abandon the commune and head to London.
After stealing a car and navigating (quite literally) their way through the still-flooded city, mother and baby arrive home. Thankfully, their house is still standing, as the neighbourhood seems to be already recovering from the disaster.
While Woman explores the damaged rooms, she hears the front door - it's R!
The family is reunited right where everything started, at their home, after going through a horrific, life-changing experience. It's a hopeful ending, which is meant to encapsulate the idea of the movie's title - their lives have been destroyed, and now they have to build upon the rubble. (thanks to digitalspy)
