An older couple are in a hardscrabble rural garden, their isolated house next to a railroad track where trains occasionally speed by, rattling the cabinets. A young woman stares from a window, detached, sad. The three sit for dinner, in silence. The young woman excuses herself, retires to write a letter of loneliness to a friend in Paris. We've seen by now that her parents are deaf mutes, communicating by signing. She left home at 17 to study in Madrid, then to Australia where she married and has a child. On this visit home, communication with her parents is nil. As the Atlantic Express approaches, can anything break through the barriers between parents and child?