Is it possible to think of nothing? The absence of expression on Fausto’s face as he stands in front of his machine in the factory tells us that it is. When Ivan asks him the same thing it turns out that a thought has crept into his head: an extreme thought, dark, beyond human standards. It is this violent thought that is the origin of the encounter between Fausto and Ivan. In a remote valley eaten away by industrial towns, they are confronted with the impossibility of escape from their everyday existence.