Gerald has been separated from his wife and children for twenty-one years. Now ailing physically and mentally, he contacts them in the hope of a reunion.
In a summer in Shonan village, Sumiko is the daughter of an important upper-class Shikishima family, she loves to paint pictures, is going through a cooling-off of an arranged marriage that did not work out.
Peter and Bozena are studying medicine, they love each other and want to be together. The girl, after a dramatic experience, breaks off contact with her parents and moves out.
"Barbara Hammer's Optic Nerve is a powerful personal reflection on family and aging. Hammer employs filmed footage which, through optical printing and editing, is layered and manipulated to create a compelling meditation on her visit to her grandmother in a nursing home.
A very beautiful and blind girl, Gülüşan, marries miller Mestan and becomes his third wife. Gülüşan is not welcomed by the other wives, resulting in a dangerous power struggle among them.