Two women relive the close relationship they once had. Johanne describes how she experienced the world as a child, how attached she felt to her 11 years older cousin Bell, and the pain she felt when bell disappeared.

Bell too has a story to look back on, a story of growing up as an orphan and of a series of disruptions and departures. Taken together the two stories combine into a larger picture of dependence and rejection, lack of love and a fear of intimacy.