An elderly woman named Eka, played by superb actress Esther Gorintin in a performance to be remembered, is deeply attached to her son Otar, who left Tbilisi for Paris. Eka's daughter Marina (Nino Khomassouridze) and Marina's daughter Ada (Dinara Droukarova) care for Eka, but are fed up with her fixation on Otar, and the household brims with resentment. These are three generations of woman, and mother-daughter issues are evident. Eka waits eagerly for phone calls from Otar or for a letter from him. Ada observes how her mother has always competed with Otar for attention and love. Marina has a male companion, but cannot feel free and relaxed enough to love him the way she should.

A curve is thrown when a friend of Otar visits with the sad news that Otar has died in an accident. Marina and Ada get the news first, and Marina is determined to keep it from her mother. The deception becomes more and more complicated, especially when Eka decides on her own to head for Paris with her daughter and granddaughter to see Otar. This is a family with a history of culture and knowledge of French, and to raise the money for the fares, Eka sells off a valuable library of books.

Bertuccelli, who also wrote the screenplay, treads delicately and the portrait of the mother is deeply affecting. What will happen? In working out events, the screenplay covers such matters as life in Georgia, with fleeting comparisons of living a lie about Otar to having lived lies under Communist rule, and what living a lie can do to a family. The future of the youngest woman, Ada, is also at stake.

All of the performances are sensitive and special, but particularly towering is the performance of Gorintin as the matriarch. It is beautiful to see her illuminate Eka's inner strength and to watch how she deals with truth and tragedy. The film makes a powerful point about how the elderly can call upon more resources than expected in attitudes of the young.