During civil war, two musicians retreat to a rural island to farm. They are apolitical; a neighbor sometimes gives them a fish; wine is a luxury. They love each other, but there are problems: the war upsets Jan, he is weepy, too sensitive; Eva wants children, he does not. The war suddenly arrives: rebels attack, neighbors die. When the other side restores order, Jan and Eva are arrested as collaborators. After frightening and roughing them up, the local colonel releases them; then he begins appearing at their farmhouse: to talk or to pursue Eva? He gives her money. The rebels return; chaos ensues. Jan becomes violent and murderous; they flee. Can they escape? If so, to what?
In 1971, Eva and Jan Rosenberg, concert violinists, take refuge on a remote island in the hope of avoiding the civil war raging across the bay on the mainland. Jan is exempt from military service because of a bad heart; and he and Eva are indifferent to the war's outcome. They earn a living by raising and selling lingonberries. A plane is shot down near the couple's farm, and hordes of soldiers from both armies overrun the island. After making a futile attempt to leave in their old car, Jan and Eva are arrested on suspicion of collaboration and are subjected to an interview filmed for television, which is later dubbed over with political propaganda. Through the intervention of Colonel Jacobi, an old friend of the Rosenbergs who is a member of the army defending the island, they are eventually released. In return for his help, Jacobi, without Jan's knowledge, exacts a heavy price--sexual intimacy with Eva. By now almost repulsed by what she considers her husband's cowardice, Eva gives herself to Jacobi and in return receives a large sum of money. The next morning, after Jan has learned of Eva's unfaithfulness, a new squad of soldiers arrives and arrests Jacobi. He asks Jan to speak in his behalf; Jan refuses and puts up little resistance when ordered to shoot Jacobi. Taking flight following the destruction of their home, Jan and Eva encounter a trusting young soldier who tells them of a boat that is leaving for another island. In his determination to survive, Jan kills the soldier for his boots and forces Eva to accompany him to the boat landing. After paying their passage with the money Jacobi gave Eva, they join a group of passengers in the small craft and set out to sea. Scores of dead soldiers float in the water around the drifting boat, and as Eva looks at them, she recalls a dream in which, holding the child she never had, she saw a high wall covered with burning roses. On awakening, she kept thinking that she ought to remember something someone had once said--but she had forgotten what it was.
