Self-important author Leon joins his best friend on a summer holiday near the Baltic Sea to complete his novel. When they arrive, they find their house is already occupied by a beautiful, carefree woman who challenges Leon to open up. As their lusts, tensions, and dramas play out, forest wildfires rage around them and impending disaster looms. 

Unfolding like a modern-day fable, Christian Petzold’s latest film is a humorous commentary on artists that asks how we might narrate and find meaning in our lives against a backdrop of existential peril.