Early one morning, six-year-old Amálka comes down to hear mother and grandma arguing behind the closed living room door. Something about being unhappy, fairy tales, and doing everything wrong. She is bored alone in her room and returns with a storybook. But as soon as she opens the door, the adults go silent. Grandma sends her back to her room, on the promise that they will take an afternoon trip to the lake.

At breakfast, Amálka's mom upbraids her dad for serving milk a mug rather than a proper glass, which Mr. Cat immediately overturns onto her dress. She leaves in a huff. Dad takes off for a match and Amálka plays by herself in a quiet corner of the garden until her mother drops her off at grandma's and takes off without staying for lunch.

Amálka spends the afternoon with her grandparents. She is sensitive to their quibbling, but they maintain they have never had a real argument in all their

years together. They walk in the woods, pick blueberries and swim in the lake before returning to meet Amálka's mother at the house with a French gallerist working on her art show in Prague. As some harsh words are being exchanged, Amálka is sent off to play in the quiet corner of her garden.