25-year-old Sibel lives with her father and sister in a secluded village in the mountains of Turkey's Black Sea region. Sibel is a mute, but she communicates by using the ancestral whistled language of the area. Rejected by her fellow villagers, she relentlessly hunts down a wolf that is said to be prowling in the neighbouring forest, sparking off fears and fantasies among the village women. There she crosses path with a fugitive. Injured, threatening and vulnerable, he is the first one to take a fresh look at her.
Set at the turn of the century, the story concerns a Polish poet living in Cracow who has decided to marry a peasant girl. The wedding is attended by a heterogenous group of people from all strata of Polish society, who dance, get drunk and lament Poland's 100-year-long division of Poland under Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The bridegroom, a painter friend, and a journalist each in turn is confronted with spectres of Polish past. In the end a call to arms is called but turns out to be a hoax.
万里(爱德华·罗宾逊 Edward G. Robinson 饰)是一位学识渊博德高望重的大学教授。在当地的俱乐部里,悬挂着一张美女的画像,万里和其他男人一样,被画中的美人深深的吸引着。一天,正当万里站在画像前心猿意马之时,发现画中的那个美人,竟然活生生的出现在了他的眼前,她的名字叫爱丽丝(琼·贝内特 Joan Bennett 饰)。
在爱丽丝的邀请下,万里来到了她的家中,两人开了一瓶酒,准备度过一个浪漫的夜晚。可是,就在这个节骨眼上,爱丽丝的男友破门而入,对万里大发雷霆。扭打之中,万里失手杀死了爱丽丝的男友,这个夜晚发生的种种事情,毁掉了万里的一生。