Luminous black and white cinematography caresses the eye as the experience of two women's lives is told in a gently passionate and moving monologue, by a daughter prepar­ing her aged mother's naked body for the grave. In her reminiscences are the tensions, tragedies and triumphs of their relationship. As her repressed feelings of love and bitterness ebb and flow in a swell of sorrow, the camera explores the surface of the mother's body, upon which is written that other story, of time and death.