Past Tense is a film about a young woman - Elizabeth - who is trapped in the past. Her parents died in a car crash when she was 11 years old, and her visits to the cemetery opened her eyes to the other gravestones - other past lives. There she found a rich past to imagine. She began to do grave rubs and then invent stories about those people. There are two important women in Elizabeth's life, her therapist and her writing teacher. They are pulling her in vastly different directions, especially when a spirit appears from one of her grave rubs, asking for help. Past Tense is a journey for Elizabeth from the past to learning how to live in the present, and what she must overcome to do so.