Young Saale, the girl in black with her small suitcase, comes to live with her aunt in a fishermen's village. Her only precious thing is a glass ball that is a memory of her mother whose death has left Saale alone in the world. She has been repelled and humiliated, so she is not expecting anything good to come from people. For her surprise, young fisherman Tanel is ready to walk with her by the sea even if they won't speak a word. He doesn't think Saale is strange and he won't ridicule her for her religious views. Slowly, Saale opens up for the bright sides of earthly life.

The film is set in Lithuania after the Second World War. It shows dramatic events in a small Lithuanian farming community, where people are split between the Soviets and the "brothers in the woods", who are fighting to defend their land from the Soviets after the end of the Second World War.