Marius is the chief medical officer at a hospital in his small hometown, raising a teenage son, Ioan, alone after the death of his wife. He is a confident professional, who has no idea what his son gets up to at night, cycling through town vandalising cars with a gang of masked vigilantes. Marius’s world is shaken when he learns that the police have come to suspect his son of murder.

The story is set in the 1930s, somewhere in the mountains in Romania. It centres on Simion, a ranger who lives like a hermit in the middle of the forest. One day, he stumbles upon a beaten-up woman, Irina, and tries to find out who has hurt her. He also tries to stay away from her but fails.