In the high Alpine Valley of Engleberg, the film (split into two parts, A & B) follows two different teams of mountain workers, people who day in and day out perform the same tasks to make the mountain safe and pleasurable – they are the hidden labour that allows the mountain industry to function.
A hardworking young man bent on saving his sick son must convince a stranger to kill an innocent student or an unknown group will detonate the bomb strapped under his coat.
Mia, an aspiring actress, serves lattes to movie stars in between auditions and Sebastian, a jazz musician, scrapes by playing cocktail party gigs in dingy bars, but as success mounts they are faced with decisions that begin to fray the fragile fabric of their love affair, and the dreams they worked so hard to maintain in each other threaten to rip them apart.
1966, United States of America: Kennedy is unable to prevent the Cuban Missile crisis in 1962, creating a nuclear winter throughout the country that seems to have no end.