'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way' — these words of Leo Tolstoy are taken as truth. And everyone invariably wants to understand why happiness disappears so quickly, while unhappiness torments the soul for so long.

The characters of young Norwegian writer Helga Flatland experience all stages of disillusionment when confronted with an unexpected decision by their elderly parents. In trying to sort out the present, they are forced to plunge into the truth of the past, to look anew at themselves and their loved ones. None of them will manage to escape the web of doubt without losses.