Alice (Jessica Chastain) and Céline (Anne Hathaway), besides being neighbors, are mostly heart friends in a suburban American suburb in the 1960s.

It is the early 1960s, and best friends and neighbors Alice and Celine are living an idyllic lifestyle with manicured lawns, successful husbands and sons the same age. After a tragic accident, their perfect lives are abruptly disrupted. Guilt, suspicion and paranoia disrupt the sisters' relationship and a psychological battle of wills ensues in which their maternal instinct shows its darkest side. Benoît Delhomme makes his directorial debut with the psychological thriller Mothers' Instinct, an American remake of the Belgian film Duelles. The original script was loosely based on the 2012 novel "Behind the Hatred" (Derrière la haine), by Barbara Abel.