Tyrol/South Tyrol 1950. After being on the run, the rapist and murderer Guido Zingerle is arrested and taken to the police station in Brixen. Ida Hofer works as a secretary at the police station. Unexpectedly confronted with Guido Zingerle she is assailed suddenly by dark memories of her own past.

The Alps, late 19th century. Greider, a mysterious lone rider who claims to be a photographer, arrives at an isolated lumber village, despotically ruled by a family clan, asking for winter accommodation.