"a striking departure from the expected that widens our picture of Iranian life and film." -- Sight & Sound
The desolate beauty of the Iranian winter sets the stage for this poetic tale of a beautiful wife Khatoun (Mitra Hajjar) left alone while husband Moktar (Hashem Abdi) leaves town to find work. Khatoun's world becomes as bleak as the enclosing winter till, one day, Marhab (Ali Nicksaulat), an outsider, appears. Smitten with Khatoun, and believing her widow, a thorny courtship ensues as Khatoun must weigh her husband's indefinite absence against her yearning for emotional comfort.