With unprecedented access to the Thames Valley Police Domestic Abuse Teams, and the victims of violence they are helping, Behind Closed Doors gives an extraordinary insight into the most common violent crime to take place in the home. The complex emotions involved when someone you love becomes violent are exposed. When the Police repeatedly take one perpetrator to court only to have magistrates release him again and again, the film demonstrates how the huge ordeal of going to court for these victims of domestic abuse does not mean that justice will automatically follow.

The film tells the love story of the refugee Patrick and Sara from Berlin, who are fighting together for refugee rights in Berlin. When harmless advance turns into a sexual assault, the group is forced to rethink their aims and the private love story grows to an unwanted public dimension.