Carl spent twenty-five years in a madhouse after he had committed a brutal crime. Returning to the city of his youth, in one of the southern states of America, he behaves calmly and reasonably. It helps him to find a job and make friends with a boy and his widowed mother. However, the appearance of a disgusting and rude lover of this woman poses an agonizing choice in front of Karl and leads to dramatic changes in the lives of everyone involved in this story.