In the autumn of 1932, three men, Gabriel, Martin and Karol are all bathing in a large lake and are watching a beautiful woman who is reading a book under a tree. The woman, Helena is beautiful, intelligent, liberated, but despite all this is lonely. Each of the men, one a doctor, the other a director at the local boy′s school and the third a notary who has escaped from his native Bohemia are in love with this vision of beauty. However the product of one of many secret affairs conducted by Karol has immense consequences not only for the men′s ability to realize their romantic and sexual ambitions with Helena but for their mutual friendship as well. The unexpected arrival of Valentina, ashy, pure and intrinsically strong girl who is on the border between childhood and womanhood confronts the men with the ignored responsibilities of their promiscuity but also awakens a sensitivity that they had previously ignored in themselves.