Nicolas lives with his mother on a remote island where only mothers live with their little sons. The boys have strange operations in the hospital, a central part of the small community. At the same time, their mothers, with their dark hair and bleached eyebrows, become part of a shadowy spectacle.

Eleven years after her profoundly enigmatic feature debut Innocence, French visionary Lucile Hadžihalilović returns to the murky depths of puberty with Evolution. At once a seaside-set horror about young boys coming of age, and a visually rapturous mood piece on motherhood, starfish, and the sea.