In a part of Flanders where flax is the main crop, farmer Vermeulen rules his estate like an 'old school' patriarch, stern and authoritarian, nobody else's word is ever taken seriously, just scolded fools, he rather risks being wrong then considering any advice. His marriage is based on a grim understanding: the wife Barbele accepts his heartless manner with everyone, even their studious, smart, healthy, studly son and heir Louis, but his two silly sisters are spoiled with a pointless fancy nunnery boarding school education fit for the upper classes. Farm-life is hard enough, laboring without machines or reliable weather, but this year the stubborn master made it even worse by picking the riskier, badly drained field and sowing later then his neighbors, even when luck turns he'll fetch a lower price for it. Poor practically perfect Louis is granted neither praise, respect nor any pleasure, however hard and well he slaves, obedient like the hired farmhands although well-read. Even ...

The story centers on Jean (François Beukelaers)—an ex-colonial and former mercenary—and his girlfriend Nadia, who together run the tavern. The bar serves as a gloomy crossroads where three different generations of patrons intersect. As these lonely individuals drink and collide, they confront each other's unfulfilled dreams, romantic illusions, hidden desires, and sudden outbursts of aggression. Trapped between their past actions and what could have been, the characters struggle with profound miscommunication. The film blends dark melancholy with sharp injections of humor, tracking a complex web of human relationships where everyone is simultaneously the hunter and the prey.