In this gripping, tense, and beautifully crafted film, first-time director Sarah Gavron leads us through the evocative story of Sadie and Richie, parents of a baby born dangerously early. The doctors give Luke, seventeen weeks premature and small enough to fit into the palm of a hand, only a 25 percent chance of surviving. Unable to live without steroids and a respirator, Luke must be kept in the nightmarish sterility of neonatal intensive care. Sadie, at first unable even to touch her newborn child, spends each harrowing day in the hospital as her tiny son fights to survive. Through her fierce love and helpless desperation, Sadie develops a connection with the small being, and he in turn reveals to her his own mysterious life force. Sadie begins imagining her life with Luke as a healthy seven-year-old, and as her son struggles for each breath, she creates a world that is the happy antidote to these surreal, dangerous weeks. Sadie's borderline obsessive relationship with Luke results in estrangement from Richie, and to a certain degree, from reality. From Sadie's undiluted emotions to her gradual understanding and eventual acceptance of Luke's future, This Little Life paints a very real portrait of the fragility and preciousness of human bonds.