Occupied

Nora Bell, a teacher from Austin, Texas, and her husband Evan decide to do a home exchange so they can afford a vacation in Portugal. Their modest home receives eleven applications, and they choose the one from Inês and Tomás Alves, a couple offering a beautiful three-story house in Porto. Before traveling, both couples share detailed guides with house rules. Nora goes into minute detail about things like her dog Waffles’ quirks and how to feed her sourdough starter; the Portuguese couple includes strange rules, such as that “the house must be greeted in the mornings” and a ban on moving the photographs in the hallway.