A village where women, children, and elderly people reside. The men are away for nine months, working in Russia. Summer has a slow, friendly atmosphere: women do the hay, cut the  grass, and can fruit and put away stores for the winter. The sun arouses a laziness, a sensual relaxation. Autumn, with its shades of red, is the season of birth and of the potato harvest. Women and men find intimacy in the coldness of winter, and so women give birth in October and November. Fathers meet their children in December. Preparations start to welcome the men, but a form of suspense and a long, tiring wait set in: whose husband will come first? The men arrive with the snow. The women are shy, they need time to be in the presence of men. But the children are happy to be close to their fathers. Spring arrives, tense. Men depart for the land of the tsars. The women, weak and sad, need to find strength to take care of the children.