Narrative is crucial to the story and is therefore organised in time and space, while being directed by causality. Specifically, Ivan Sen’s 2013 mystery-drama, Mystery Road explores its plot through causal and effect, through a chronological order, and temporal duration of weeks within a one hour fifty-eight minute frame.

The film introduces the audience to the murder of a young girl in a small town, and already a disequilibrium exists. In order to establish a stable equilibrium, the effect must be found; the motive, the murderer and possibly the method. Therefore, the audience are eager to uncover the events that occurred before the plot; before the young Indigenous girl was murdered. Ultimately, the film is from the perspective of Jay, the main character and investigator, thus the plot of finding the effect becomes the external conflict.

The internal conflict occurs within Jay’s life, in trying to rekindle his relationship with his daughter. This therefore becomes part of the story in order to motivate the character to continue his investigation. Again, the audience are aware of the causal; choosing his work-devoted life over his relationship with his wife. While this time, the audience are aware of the effect; damaging a close relationship with his daughter and his ex-partner becoming an alcoholic or exacerbating her addiction.

Overall, Mystery Road has an overall story duration that spans throughout a number of years, various locations, and several story events, an overall plot duration of a number of weeks, and a condensed screen duration of 118 minutes.