In the early 1950s, the orphan Cecilia (15) has become pregnant. To conceal the pregnancy, the orphanage decides that Cecilia is to give away her unborn child to Ida, who desperately wants to adopt, and who lives alone with her maid Alma in an old, isolated mansion. Cecilia is sent out to live at the mansion for the duration of her pregnancy and for a while the three women constitute an odd family, where they each find respite for their loneliness, sorrow and longing. But with the arrival of the baby, the harmonious circumstances suddenly change.