From the backdrop of an impoverished steel-working community in working-class Hamilton, Ontario, in the 1970s, To Refrain From Embracing follows the trials faced by a small family after a suicide-attempt results in 33-year-old veteran Ted being checked into the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital. His wife Gloria struggles with family finances and growing worries related to the well-being of their 10-year-old son Josh while also re-embracing her Indigenous identity begins to grow through encounters with a local steelworker and remembrances of her mother. Josh meanwhile, struggles with his nascent sexuality, lack of acceptance from his peers, and fears about his father's mental health, all while entering into a friendship with a troubled neighbourhood teen.

To Refrain From Embracing is an immersive, naturalistic, and sometimes darkly comedic exploration of a family pushed up against personal and societal precepts of class, race, and sexuality.