Small Things Like These

In the frigid winter of 1985, on the eve of Christmas, Bill Furlong leads a quiet life as a coal merchant in a small and peaceful town in County Wexford, in southeastern Ireland. A father of five daughters and a devoted husband, Bill strives to support his family with dignity and hard work, fulfilling his daily routine among the houses of the town and the silent rural roads.

One morning, while making a delivery at the local convent run by Catholic nuns, Bill makes an unexpected and disturbing discovery: a young woman held in inhumane conditions in the convent's laundry, one of the notoriously infamous Magdalene Laundries. This finding rekindles memories of his own childhood marked by the compassion of a woman who raised him alone in an environment that did not forgive moral slip-ups, and confronts him with the collective silence of a community subjected to the power and influence of the Church.

As Christmas approaches, Bill must make a moral decision that could alter his quiet existence. Faced with the dilemma of protecting his family's stability or acting according to his conscience, he is forced to choose between the comfort of indifference or the courage to do what is right.

Based on the acclaimed novel of the same name by Claire Keegan, this intimate and moving story delicately portrays the silent struggle of an ordinary man to preserve his humanity in an environment marked by fear, institutional power, and forgetfulness.