Rose Plays Julie features a young female veterinary student, Rose, who is 'adrift in the world'. Having been adopted as an infant, Rose decides to track down her birth mother. She fantasises about how her life might have been lived had she not been adopted and instead been 'Julie', the name on her birth certificate. After she has succeeded in finding her birth mother Ellen, an actress, and learnt some disturbing truths, she proceeds to look for her biological father Peter, an archaeologist.

In an interview in 2019 Christine Molloy said that ' “Rose Plays Julie” is a psychological thriller about the impact of male violence and abuses of power. It is also a film about righting a wrong. Trying to find some kind of justice. Revenge. But at its heart, it is a story about a mother and daughter.'