1963, when the young Frieda Tendelow steps onto the frozen river the Waal, she has an encounter which changes her life. While on the ice, she meets Otto, a young married man. They experience a forbidden love that begins impetuously but ends disastrously.

All her life she keeps her memories of this to herself.

Many years later Frieda ends up alone after her husband dies. And tje undisclosed sorrow inescapably imposes itself on her. Only then does she dare to look for what she has lost.