June 1914. On the eve of World War I, 14-year old Oda travels from Berlin to Estonia to bury her mother in her homeland. But this is no good time to travel to the Balstic coast. The atmosphere on the Poll estate is poisoned by the private and professional disappointments of her father Ebbo, the instability of her aunt Milla, the hostility of the local domestics and a massacre committed on Estonian anarchists by tsarist soldiers near the estate. Unimpressed by the signs of looming disaster, the precocious and stubborn Oda hides a wounded Estonian revolutionary on her parents' estate. Her encounter with "Schnaps", as she calls him, changes her life completely. With the heat of the Estonian summer, the conflicts acuminate on the Poll estate until they become a matter of life and death. Director Chris Kraus was inspired by his own family history: Oda Schaefer was his great-aunt.