On Christmas Eve, Mathias returns to the multiethnic mountain village of Transylvania, Romania, where he was born and raised, after finishing his work abroad. Mathias worries about the education his son Rudy is receiving from his Romanian mother Anna, and longs to see his Hungarian ex-lover Kira again. He finds that his son and the entire village are shrouded in a strange shadow of irrational fear and uneasiness. When two foreign workers are hired at the bakery managed by Kira, deep-seated impulses and resentments emerge, conflicts and emotions erupt, and the community's peaceful appearance is broken.