A man hoping to avoid his sister at Thanksgiving dinner is forced to confront the role he played in concealing her most devastating secrets. After killing a deer on the road, a woman succumbs to her long-suppressed fixation on mortality. Unable to stop her mother from entering a dire situation, a young girl tries to redeem her wayward best friend - until he does the unforgivable, and she is forced to make the impossible choice of whom to save. Amidst it all, one anonymous subject grapples with their attachment to a dangerous individual, whom they recognize as destructive if intoxicating, alongside their own distorted perception of love.From the perspectives of the insider, the perpetrator, the observer, and more, The Importance of Breaking Things explores the ways in which we gravitate toward danger - and, feral as they seem, the uniquely human metamorphoses we undergo while dancing on its periphery.