Pastoral Spring

In a house where love and distant authority reign and clash together, Isaac, an eight-year-old boy, has difficulty to express himself fully. His grandfather, David, adores him, but his father, Andrew, secretly holds him responsible for his mother's death, who died while giving birth to him. Andrew is not expressive, and is torn between grief and the jealousy of being overshadowed in Isaac's life by David and Cybila, a dairy cow which belonged to Isaac's mother, and with which the boy has established a strong bond of replacement. Andrew just does not seem able to forgive, for there precisely is nothing which is to be apparently forgiven. As Andrew sees his son slipping more and more out of his grip, Cybila, Isaac's beloved cow, falls ill, and the diagnosis of a veterinarian does not make things better: the cow must be put down.