Through a guiding matriarch, the Chestwicks appear to be a blessed family: active church attendees, foster home, and an unfaltering charitable spirit. However, under this false light, nineteen-year-old Clare Chestwick resolves to no longer be a victim. After years of cascading emotional and physical trauma by those claiming to care for her most, she ties her family and lovers to chairs in a nearby dilapidated barn, each gripped with a noose as a reminder and test. She challenges each of them to reflect on the trials they forced her and each other to endure, as we learn through the five unique perspectives of each confronted party. Tribulations questions the obligations that a family holds to one another, despite personal failings and reactive cruelty, as well as the values we instill in our children through these acts.