A sudden hospital stint leaves Phoebe, a young Los Angeles background actress, in need of a kidney transplant. When she travels home for a medical evaluation, she must balance her new reality with the loose ends she left behind. Using mostly non-actors and improvised dialogue, and based on writer/director Lily Gareth Cunningham's experience with serious illness during filming, 'Acute Failure' explores terminal growing pains and the wistful sweetness of the mundane.