A Whole Life

Nobody knows exactly how old the orphan Andreas Egger is when he starts working at the Kranzstocker farm in the valley. To the god-fearing but violent farmer he is at best a cheap helper. Only the old Ahnl cares about him. After her death, he joins a work crew that builds one of the first mountain ropeways and rents a simple wooden hut high up in the mountains, where he makes a home for himself and his great love Marie. But their happiness together is short-lived. At the beginning of the Second World War Egger is called up and falls into Soviet captivity. He only returns to the valley many years later. There, Marie is very close to him one last time and the old Egger looks back with amazement at the years that lie behind him.