Unrelenting snowstorms cut off a mountain village from the outside world before tourists and a group of soldiers with their sick horses escape from the valley. The first avalanche has buried the road and railroad tracks. People and livestock crowd into the few houses that are still safe and the undersized hotel. Manfred and Jutta, who have been vacationing here with their seven-year-old child, have to give up their child's room for evacuees. In the tension of this first night, when they cannot avoid each other, accusations that have long remained unspoken erupt between them. Embittered, Manfred goes so far as to provoke Jutta into having an affair and is shocked when she does not defend herself more vigorously. Hurt and curious, she allows herself to be seduced by a French-speaking soldier.