Stalemate takes place on three levels of reality, telling one woman's story on different layers of narrative and weaving through multiple layers of truth and fictional representation. The film portrays the unraveling of a relationship as a story within a story within a story, moving interchangeably through a forward and reverse chronology of events. The broken and convoluted narrative represents the mirror of a mind coping with psychological stress--the lies and fictions we create on top of our own realities in order to cope with pain and loss.