This story of three people's search for their own mutual happiness in a world of solitude and alienation, underlines some of the major anxieties of twentieth century life.

The quiet, almost idyllic life of a young couple, David and Michele, is shattered by a household accident in which their baby girl is seriously injured. Because of certain abnormalities in the couple's relationship, the courts send Michele to a psychiatric clinic for an undetermined period. Pale pristine shadings and stark winter light permeate almost every frame of this film. They become images of the story itself as life is left hanging in suspension. A person alone, hopelessly frail, standing against the bone-chilling desolation of infinite winter fields. The nightmare of the accident howls in Michele's memory, while the scratching of David's pen echoes in the empty house.

During the three-year wait for his wife, David befriends Yan. Life becomes more bearable and seems, for a time at least, to offer hope and a strange, fragile happiness. But when Michele finally does come home, Yan's presence only widens the gulf that has opened between them.