After many years of living in Los Angeles, Elisabeth returns to her small hometown in Upper Austria to sell the old farmhouse she has inherited from her mother. She never met her mother and always hated her as a "heartless woman" for giving her away as a small child. Yet Elisabeth herself seems to be a cold, unhappy woman, obviously suffering from her inability to relate to others. As she arrives at her late mother's house, she not only finds there her eccentric drunk brother Thomas, but also a four-year-old girl who appears and disappears like a ghost. Elisabeth comes to learn that the little girl is--or was--no one but herself of 30 years ago. She begins to doubt her own perception and slowly comes to the conclusion that she must be insane, just like the locals say her late mother was. Even the slowly-developing love affair with the shady head of the local hospital cannot keep her from falling deeper and deeper into a psychological check-mate. She must finally face her fate--and start looking for the love she never knew.