A middle-aged man sets out on a symbolic journey through past, present, and future to learn why an old friend committed suicide, and learns much about his own life along the way.

Drogo, a young lieutenant, is assigned to the defense of an isolated fortress in a mountainous desert region. The garrison’s mission is to fight off any attacks by the Tartars. In reality though, the real enemy is time, sapping their lives and vitality as they wait for an enemy that never shows up.

In a remote mountain village, everyone who reaches the age of 70 must leave their home and climb to a mountaintop to die. If anyone should refuse they would disgrace their family. Old Orin is 69. This winter it is her turn to go to the mountain. But first she must make sure that her eldest son Tatsuhei finds a wife.

When billionaire Jean-Marc Clement learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue, he passes himself off as an actor playing him in order to get closer to the beautiful star of the show, Amanda Dell.