What she does not know is that her son is in prison, a victim of Hungary's Stalinist regime. His wife keeps the secret well—she visits the old woman regularly, tells her that her writer son is held up in America, making a film; she brings her flowers, food, even forged letters, purporting to be from her husband. The daughter-in-law is in trouble herself—she has lost her job and finds it harder and harder to keep alive, let alone keep up the game of pretence.

Then one day, the old lady catches pneumonia and her son is released from gaol.