One morning just before Christmas, Leena receives a phone call from a hospital in her childhood hometown telling her that her mother is dying. This news takes her on a journey to face her mother for the first time in her adult life. Leena has fought all her life to let go of her grief over her lost and dark childhood. She is now forced to deal with her past to be able to move on.

An achingly sensual story of love and adultery set in the early years of the 20th century, this is an adaptation of a classic 1912 novel by Hjalmar Söderberg about a passionate affair between a painter and a journalist. “A visual delight [with] a deft screenplay by Lone Scherfig.” Screen