The film comprises six interconnected stories, one of them co-written with actress-screenwriter Iulia Lumânare. Interestingly, the feature recycles (and completes) The Christmas Gift and another, unreleased short film, New Year’s Eve. One of the protagonists is Ştefan Silvestru, the director of the national television station, who has to deal with a career-ending issue: an actress who appeared in a sketch to be broadcast on New Year’s Eve has defected the country. Silvestru’s son, Laurenţiu, who plans to defect by swimming across the Danube to Yugoslavia, is the protagonist of another story, all six of them exploring the atmosphere in Bucharest before the “end of the world”, or the fall of the regime.
The plot involves a woman who sets out a well-intentioned plan of bringing together her dysfunctional family in the wake of the family’s matriarch, her mother-in-law. She deceives her husband and others in to believe their mother left rules for the family to follow in the lead up to Christmas. Wanting to believe their mother left some guidance to help heal the wounds of her absence, the family comes together and follows the rules to the letter.