The story revolves around a young woman Marichka, who needs to go on a quest to find out more about a fairy tale that her grandmother started telling her when she was a child but did not finish. At the beginning of the film, she is a little frightened girl who can only find comfort and protection in her grandmother. Through her eyes, we are taken into her first childhood nightmare and subsequent trauma: the fear of death and of being left alone that, as a self-defence mechanism, she hides inside an old chest. Then, the grown-up Marichka finds the book that her grandmother read to her when she was a child, but the pages are blank. She has to listen to an inner voice that leads her up to the mountain, where she sees women with covered eyes and a man falling from the top of the mountain.
From this moment onwards, the personal quest of this young woman becomes interweaved with another layer of the story where the same motives repeat themselves on a macro scale. The women with covered eyes can be seen as a collective symbol of society. The conscious decision to close their eyes in order not to face collective traumas and problems leads to the loss of identity and the growth of social pres- sure. Theonewhois, a young man who falls from the top of the mountain, just as all the other characters of the story, can be seen both as a hero and as a part of Marichka’s soul; a reflection of her fear. He chose to live a different life but took the wrong step and cannot return unless healthy consciousness in his community is restored. Every time Marichka tries to save him she fails and, in one scene, she even becomes trapped in this web symbolized by a red ribbon.
Marichka leaves her home, but throughout the film something brings her back there — the old chest in which she stored her childhood fear, the one she needs to face. During her quest, Marichka meets two female archetypal figures and mountain spirits rooted in Carpathian folklore: Povitrulya – her magical guide – and Bogynka – a dark spirit who tries to stop her from accomplishing her mission. Played by one single actress, as two sides of one coin, Povitrulya is a force for acceptance, healing and rebirth, while Bogynka, not being able to overcome her trauma, is a force of destruction who can only be defeated by facing the truth. In search of revenge, she captures Theonewhois. Meanwhile, near the river, Marichka says goodbye to her grandmother and sees herself as a child. By finding comfort within herself, she is able to internalise the spiritual presence of her grandmother. Then, following the key, she goes back home to find out what is inside the old chest and makes a sacri- fice in order to get the powers of the wind. As she becomes free of her burden and light as the wind, she manages to trick Bogynka and changes a moment in past, becoming the narrator of the destiny of Theonewhois and his people.