Ca´it is a nine-year-old girl from an over-crowded, dysfunctional and poor family. Quietly struggling at school and at home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her. As summer arrives and her pregnant mother’s due date approaches, Ca´it (Catherine Clinch) is sent to live with distant relatives. Without knowing when she will return home, she is left at the strangers' house with only the clothes she is wearing. The Kinsellas, a middle-aged couple she has never met, dress the girl in what clothes they have.They are farming people, like her own, but hard-working and wanting for nothing, it seems. Despite a warm reception from the woman, Eibhli´n (Carrie Crowley), the man of the house, Sea´n (Andrew Bennett), keeps his distance from Ca´it and she from him, but over time, their strained relationship begins to deepen. Slowly, in the care of the Kinsellas, Ca´it blossoms and discovers a new way of living. But in this house where affection grows and there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
Colm Bairéad was born in Dublin and studied film at the Dublin Institute of Technology. His first commissioned short film Mac an Athar (His Father’s Son), a semi-autobiographical film about an Irish-speaking family in Dublin, enjoyed success on the international festival circuit. The Quiet Girl, Colm’s narrative feature debut, is the highest-grossing Irish language film of all time and one of the most critically and commercially successful Irish films in recent years. It was Ireland's entry for the Best International Feature category at the 95th Academy Awards, eventually earning the nomination.