AllMovie

When a suicidal nurse living in a nondescript town near the French-Swiss border walks into the woods with the intention of taking her own life, a surprise turn of events forces her to connect with the surrounding community in a way she could have never imagined. Frederique Bornoz (Isild Le Besco) is a quiet loner who never got along with her father (Philippe Villeumier) and takes great caution not to get emotionally involved with her patients at the hospital in which she works. Upon informing her ex-boyfriend Andre (Christophe Sermet) that she will soon be leaving town and has no plans of ever returning, Fred is crushed to learn that the man she still loves has already started dating again. Later, after entering into an impulsive ménage a trios with a pair of male friends, the one-time junior rifle champ loads her trusty firearm and walks into the woods and prepares to take her own life. Fred's suicidal plans are soon interrupted, however, when the despondent young woman spies two young boys tussling in the trees. Instinctively raising her rifle and getting a beat on the boys, Fred fires a single bullet that grazes one of the boys and destroys the knee of the other before fleeing the scene having failed to fulfill her mortal mission. When one of the boys, an sullen fourteen year-old named Marco (Steven De Almeida), is admitted to the Fred's hospital ward, the pair enter into a complex relationship in which Fred's dark secret casts a long shadow over every conversation.