Parity Pipeline

Genre

Synopsis

Ella, a 17-year-old Californian preparing for college, receives a life-altering call: her Scottish grandmother, Isa, is terminally ill. Choosing family over her own plans, Ella travels to Scotland to connect with her late father's roots. Arriving in Moffat via the eerie road overlooking the “Devil’s Beeftub,” a fog-covered valley where Scots used to hide livestock, Ella encounters an unsettling atmosphere. A local fisherman has vanished, and ominous warnings from the “Singing Potter” hint at looming danger. On her 18th birthday, Isa gifts Ella her own ring and her father's sgian-dubh, developing a strong bond. Ella assists Duncan, a young sheep farmer who has lost his parents, as an ewe gives birth to a stillborn lamb. Duncan skins the stillborn and wraps an orphaned lamb in its fleece, using scent to persuade the grieving mother to accept the new baby. Guided by her late father's hiking book, Ella discovers the Moffat Well, famed for its mystical healing properties. When Isa collapses and doctors can only provide comfort, Ella hurries to the well, filling bottles with its water. Returning home, she discovers an injured sheep and shelters it overnight, offering it well water. She then tends to her grandmother, also giving her the well water. As Moffat descends into chaos—marked by missing people and inexplicable transformations—Ella uncovers a gruesome scene at Beeftub Farm, where slaughtered sheep hint at a dark ritual. Suddenly, Isa's behavior becomes unsettling despite her physical improvement. Alarmed, Ella seeks answers from Duncan, encountering distressed sheep injuring themselves on fencing in desperate escape attempts, one tragically taking its own life. Arriving at Duncan's, Ella presses him about her grandmother's alarming transformation, questioning whether the sheep could have transmitted an illness causing madness. Duncan reveals a startling truth: Ella's use of the well water triggered a strange phenomenon, swapping bodies between sheep and townspeople. He proposes this bizarre process offers eternal life and the power to shape destinies, claiming Ella's actions miraculously healed her grandmother. Armed with her father's sgian-dubh, Ella searches for Isa. At Beeftub Farm, Ella finds Isa, but sheeple villagers detect her scent. Ella hides in a bush, but Sheep Isa tracks her down. In a desperate act, Ella fatally stabs Sheep Isa, futilely trying to protect her real grandmother, bidding a tearful farewell. As the Sheeple close in, Ella skins Sheep Isa and drapes the fleece over her shoulders, rendering herself invisible to their senses. Inside the barn, Duncan dons a ram's head as the Sheeple encircle him in a grim ritual. Ella enters, and Duncan extends a hand to her, but she retaliates with her father's sgian-dubh, unintentionally assuming the role of shepherd. A Sheeple presents her with the ram's head, and as she lifts it towards her own, Ella accidentally drops her grandmother's ring. Stirred by memories of Isa's urging to embrace life, Ella departs the barn. Scaling the Beeftub wall, Ella departs Moffat, donned in the bloody sheepskin, carrying her grandmother's ring and father's knife—a testament to her journey of discovery and sacrifice.