A massive segment of the Sun has broken off and is heading for Earth, whose surface is slowly heating up to an unbearable level. A strange mood pervades a debilitated world: anything could happen, virtually anywhere, without warning. Even in a sleepy town, where an 18-year-old lad gets stranded on his way to the family cottage. The fact is that no-one knows at what temperature the human character starts to melt...

The reclusive writer Henry returns from his travels and finds a pile of letters on his doorstep. Without a salutation or signature, the poems written on used train tickets remind him of his current literary impotence. Henry opens envelope after envelope and reads, reading between the lines, gradually allowing the foreign words to touch his soul. After a while, his imagination awakens, and he may even start writing again himself. But who are these mysterious letters from?