Springtime. Fred and Mick, two old friends now approaching eighty, are on vacation together in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps.Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. Mick, a film director, is still working. The two friends know that their time is quickly running out, and they decide to face their future together. They look with curiosity and tenderness on their children’s confused lives, Mick’s enthusiastic young writers, and the other hotel guests, all of whom, it seems, have all the time that they lack. And while Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred, who gave up his musical career long ago, has no intention of returning to it. But someone wants at all costs to hear his compositions and to see him conduct again.