Maria, who was raised on a farm by her parents, is fed up with her dictatorial father and decides to leave for the city. She gets a job cleaning houses and tries to make ends meet in a run-down apartment in a seedy section of town. She's pregnant, and the fact that her partner has abandoned her doesn't help matters. Mother comes to stay with daughter when her father has an operation. She and her neighbor, an elderly recluse whose only friend is his dog, try to give each other the courage to begin anew.