Two trains depart from two distant points in space and time. On one of the trains the renowned but ailing European writer Kornél Esti, is travelling to Germany for his last lecture tour on a wintry day in 1933. The other train departs from the same station, though 30 years earlier, carrying the young Kornél Esti full of enthusiasm and a desire for the knowledge and the secrets of life. On this beautiful, bright summer morning he� on his way to the Italian coast for his first solo journey in life. The train trip turns out to be decisive for �oth�of them. The belief that he�l become a poet and famous writer grows on him. In his opinion, only the artist is capable of responding to the ultimate question of existence. Meanwhile, the tired, disillusioned and illness-ridden Esti recalls his sinful, passionate life and soon realizes that he has to find justifications: has he, with his epicurian lifestyle, squandered his life away..?