The story takes place in Czechoslovakia in 1987. The father has defected to England and the mother and her son are planning to leave the country to reunite with him. The film is told through the eyes of the fourteen year old boy, his rankled look without the veneer of experience and initiation in one day. His mother moves about in an intensified daily routine, mapping it out hour by hour. He catches up with her on that path but she must act alone in order to achieve their reunion