Set in Chikuho amid the closing of the region’s coal-mining industry, this film recounts the histories of miners and their families in a narrative that unfolds in a mixture of fact and fiction.
In this film the director's recurring concerns return: the divisions in the Chilean left, and its contradictions between what the director calls the "traditional" and the "revolutionary" left.
Abel Hradscheck, the owner of an inn in the Oderbruch country, faces financial ruin. For this state of affairs, Ursula, his wife and former actress, is by no means free of blame.
Shanta Dhamle lives a wealthy lifestyle in Bombay along with her dad, Shamrao, and mom, Ansuya. She incurs their displeasure when she falls in love and gets married to a poor and overly sensitive writer, Gopal, who moves in with them, and continues to suffer verbal abuse at Shamrao's hands.