雷蒙（賈維爾‧巴爾登 Javier Bardem 飾）在一次跳海運動中出了意外，全身癱瘓。原本英俊壯健的他要在煎熬中度過餘生。他忍受著常人無法理解的痛苦中過活了26年，已經無法領會到活著的意義。他一再申請安樂死，卻無法獲准。他請來律師朱莉婭（貝蘭‧魯達 Belen Rueda 飾），這個女人在與雷蒙的相處中慢慢認同了他的觀點，她不幸也身患絕症，二人更加惺惺相惜。朱莉婭承諾幫雷蒙出版詩集後，就和他一同赴死。

　　有一個少婦知道了雷蒙的經歷，力勸他不要放棄生命，並深深愛上這個不幸的人。然而，這一切都無法把雷蒙從癱瘓的煎熬中重生過來。然而他還等著朱莉婭一起告別這個世界。

Malchow, German Democratic Republic, 1980. 20-year-old Anne is hiding Juri, a deserter of the Red Army. The two fall in love with each other. But their love is threatened: there is an arrest warrant and possibly a death sentence waiting for Juri. The two leave the country and flee to the West, leaving Anne’s six-month-old daughter Inga behind. Inga grows up with her grandparents and thinks that her mother died during a swimming accident. 25 years later she meets the literature professor Robert, who sends her on the trail of her past. He met Inga’s mother Anne during one of his seminars. At first Inga is resistant, but then she asks for Robert’s help. Together they take off on a journey through Germany, in search of Inga’s mother Anne...