In the aftermath of WWI, a young German who grieves the death of her fiancé in France meets a mysterious Frenchman who visits the fiancé's grave to lay flowers.

Gennaro lives with his ailing grandpa, who sits outside holding tight to his last quarter. But grandpa's not ready to die, he has some unfinished business with a woman from his past and he enlists Gennaro to act as his emissary.

Joachim Meyerhoff's autobiographical recollections include his childhood and teenager years living on the premises of a psychiatric clinic, his father being the director of the child and adolescent ward.