When her boyfriend commits suicide, unambitious Glasgow clerk Morvern Callar (Samantha Morton) invents various stories to explain his absence. After several days, she chops up and buries the body. She then finds a novel he completed before killing himself and sends it to several publishing houses as her own work. When the book is bought, Morvern uses her first payment to take a Spanish vacation with her best friend, Lana (Kathleen McDermott), which turns out to be a surprising emotional journey.