Signe is 30 years old and has just moved out of the city with her husband and child. Christmas is approaching, and the three of them plan on celebrating alone. But then Signe’s parents come visiting, and Signe is confronted with their expectations, and has to face her own past.

As well as portraying the life of a 13 year-old in the darkness of the north of Norway, Ørstavik describes an extreme conflict of universal relevance: Whose life do we wish to live?