1950s Hungary, a country under Stalinist repression, an old man flees with his memories of the past, in which he believes he can still find redemption, taking his grandson, Simon, with him. For him, he invents a fantastic tapestry of stories, a family saga. His mother dead and his father condemned by the authorities as a traitor, Simon is sent to an institution where the inmates are sentenced to silence. Liberated by his grandfather's stories, Simon gives dark and passionate testimony to the alienation and treason that surrounds him.