Dean, 32, is a gifted scientist and control freak. Dean painstakingly recreates a previous anniversary at a now deserted outback motel to impress his girlfriend, Lana, but things go awry when her ex-boyfriend, Terry, gate crashes the weekend. Dean, believing that Lana still loves Terry, is overcome with jealousy and breaks up with her. Filled with regret over his hasty actions, Dean exiles himself at the motel over the next year and builds a time travel device. He calls Lana back and convinces her to travel back in time with him to change the events of that fateful weekend. However Dean's constant struggle for perfection leads to an ever-tightening spiral of multiple "Deans", each "Dean" in competition with the other (and with Terry) for Lana's affections. Dean's compulsion to constantly make things better ends up snaring Lana in a temporal loop. As Dean attempts to break Lana free of the loop, he finally realises that ultimately it is himself, not Lana, who needs liberation. To have any chance of a future together with Lana, Dean sees that he must find a way to end his destructive cycle of self-sabotage and control to truly earn Lana's love.