When her husband dumps her, the emotionally unstable Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) finds her house in the California hills seized in foreclosure and put up for public auction by local authorities, including a sympathetic sheriff's deputy (Ron Eldard). An exiled Iranian air force colonel (Ben Kingsley) buys Kathy's "dream" house at a bargain price for his family. But Kathy is obsessed with getting it back.