When middle-aged Kata realises that her life will only be complete if she has a baby of her own, her longstanding-but-married boyfriend Joska refuses to comply. But by developing an unlikely friendship with the angst-ridden teenage orphan Anna, who is also involved in a controversial relationship, Kata discovers aspects of herself, and her role as a woman, that have gone unexamined throughout her entire, lonely life.

Karesz's mother, a weaver who was widowed at an early age, is determined to raise her son to be a civil servant, but Karesz refuses to live up to expectations. First he drops out of high school, then of office work. He also becomes disillusioned with the masked world, and love does not complete his life. Slowly, he gets lost in the complexities of growing up...