Her mother dead, 18-year-old Vladka travels to a remote village in the dead of winter to find the father she has never met. The happiness of their initial meeting gives way to the daughter’s disappointment and concern over the hardworking man’s alcoholism.
Viktor Mezek, a respected mentor to apprentices, invites his orphaned apprentice Laco for Christmas when his relationship with Hana falters. After the holidays, Laco is taunted over rumors of a homosexual relationship with Mezek and beats a fellow apprentice, risking expulsion, then disappears. Mezek searches the town, his son meanwhile visits and Hana shows them old home footage, until Viktor locates Laco hitchhiking and tries to stop him.
A sensitively told story about the first hopes of love and harsh disappointments, about tender and impenetrable girls, but also about those who are characterized by ruthlessness, takes place at a girls' boarding school...
