In postwar Budapest, Ald, a 42 year-old doctor who survived the concentration camp but lost his wife and children, slowly sinks into despair. One day a new patient arrives, 16- year-old Klra, who has lost her parents and siblings. The doctor soon discovers, behind Klra's silence and rage, a great love and determination to fight despair. The two become each other's new family, learning to live and love again after the horrors of the Holocaust. But the irunusual intimacy is threatened by Stalinist purges, revolution, and invasion.