A woman vanishes. Two men take to the road in search of her: they both love her. Why did she leave? Each one of them has his own suspicions, and hides them from the other one who—mysteriously—never truly becomes his rival. Neither is right—but is anyone? This sudden runaway becomes the hidden core of a number of fictions that the film delicately weaves together: the secret of the heart of another woman, lost as well, many years ago; the secret of the life of a village in the countryside, governed by a supernatural incident that nobody seems to perceive; the secret of the plains, which never ceases to spread and devour everything, like the shadows that invade the world after the twilight hour.
八公（Forest 饰）是一条谜一样的犬，因为没有人知道它从哪里来。教授帕克（理查·基尔 Richard Gere 饰）在小镇的火车站拣到一只走失的小狗，冥冥中似乎注定小狗和帕克教授有着某种缘分，帕克一抱起这只小狗就再也放不下来，最终，帕克对小狗八公的疼爱感化了起初极力反对养狗的妻子卡特（琼·艾伦 Joan Allen 饰）。八公在帕克的呵护下慢慢长大，帕克上班时八公会一直把他送到车站，下班时八公也会早早便爬在车站等候，八公的忠诚让小镇的人家对它更加疼爱。有一天，八公在帕克要上班时表现异常，居然玩起了以往
