故事讲述70年代的马德里，马诺洛和坎德拉带着三个孩子和祖父费尔明定居在马拉萨尼亚的马德里附近。这一举动意味着他们抛弃过去以及在城镇中的生活。马德里是一个全面过渡的大城市，也是正在寻找的繁荣的好地方。但是，奥尔梅多一家人不知道的是，他们买的房子将成为他们最糟糕的噩梦。

片头是导演兼主演艾伯特·布鲁克斯坐在一个漂亮的办公室，介绍道《真实人生》和预告片都是3D的（一个善意的谎言），需要佩戴3D眼镜观看，或者向影院借红蓝玻璃纸（也都不存在），并且越说越激动，用手夸张地指着摄像头说：“电影可能拍的就是你！”甚至搞笑地把喝完的水泼向摄像机来“解渴”。最后看似没有关系乒乓球冠军布朗出现了，艾伯特邀请他留下来，自己则举起玻璃纸看他打球，然后情不自禁地说道：“天哪，看起来你就像是真实存在一样！

Walking home from work one night, Thana, a mute seamstress in New York City's Garment District, is raped at gunpoint in an alley by a mysterious, masked attacker. She survives and makes her way back to her apartment, where she encounters a burglar and is raped a second time. Thana bludgeons this second assailant to death with an iron. She then keeps his .45 caliber M1911A1 pistol, dismembers the burglar's body, puts the pieces into plastic garbage bags and gradually disposes of them in various locations throughout the city. She begins to have frequent nightmares and hallucinations of the first assailant stalking her, and her mental stability begins to dim. Thana is noticed by a man while she is disposing of one of the bagged body parts; retrieving the bag, he chases and frightens her. Fearing another sexual assault, she fatally shoots him. This event furthers her impulse for vengeance. Gradually, Thana transforms her appearance to bee a more and more seductive bait, and sets out to kill any man who annoys her. Near the end of the film, she dons a nun's habit and red lipstick to attend a Halloween party with her boss and co-workers. Her boss tries to take advantage of her and is killed; Thana then begins a shooting spree and targets all the men present. Finally she is stabbed by a female colleague.

不亚于女导演对性别角色细腻且深入的描绘，韩裔加拿大籍的男导演申大根获得多伦多影展影评人协会奖的《她们的孩子》，藉由一名即将出世的婴儿，牵起三位女子的关係，以及一场「母亲」身分的交易，三位女子看似完美的计划，却随着即将诞生的生命，逐渐崩解。