Nicolas, a quiet and introspective ten-year-old, faces the school’s ski trip with a heavy sense of unease about fitting in with the other boys. To protect him, his overcautious father chooses to drive him to the ski resort alone rather than sending him on the group bus. The journey takes a troubling turn when they pass the scene of a serious car accident: police are positioned ahead and traffic is at a standstill. In the tension of the moment, Nicolas’ father grows anxious and clams up, tucking away loose items in the car trunk. Among these tucked-away things sits Nicolas’ travel bag, left behind as they hurry to keep moving. By the time the bus leaves with the rest of the class, Nicolas realizes his bag is still in the car, and he ends up at the resort without spare clothes or toiletries, feeling exposed and unprepared.
What follows is a sense of growing distance and worry. Nicolas’ father does not return to retrieve the bag, and attempts to reach him fail. The absence gnaws at Nicolas, and he begins to have disturbing daydreams in which his father has been involved in a car crash. These cool, clinical visions feed his anxiety and add a weight to every moment of the trip.
On the slopes, Nicolas is taken under the wing of another pupil, Hodkann, who becomes a recent confidant. In an effort to feel protected, Nicolas fabricates a remarkable story: he claims his father is a secret agent and that there are dangerous people after him. He persuades Hodkann to keep the claim secret, creating a fragile narrative of danger that only he seems to believe. This supposed danger becomes a counterpoint to his loneliness, a way to feel seen even if it is through a web of fabrication.
Nicolas’ deepest fears surface in quieter moments as well. He worries about wetting the bed, and the fear intensifies when he ends up in a bed just above Hodkann and borrows his pajamas, since he doesn’t have his own. Night after night, he fights sleep, hoping to stave off embarrassment. When sleep comes, a moment of panic arises as he wakes from a dream and believes he has wetted his pants. He slips out to clean up, then, seeing the cold, he steps outside. The freezing air closes in, and he ends up locked out, seeking shelter in the ski instructor’s car. He drifts toward sleep in the unfamiliar vehicle, and in the morning he is discovered there and taken inside for a feverish examination.
Later, Nicolas takes a break in a café while the other boys continue skiing. It’s a tense moment, because news arrives that a different boy, René, is missing. The sense of danger lingers in the background, punctuating Nicolas’ already fragile experience of the day.
That night, Nicolas’ dreams grow darker. He envisions being at a theme park with Hodkann and the instructor and boards a giant caterpillar ride. In the dream, his little brother is in the care of another seemingly friendly man, and as the ride proceeds, the brother is handed over to the same stranger who lures him away toward a white van. The nightmare sharpens the memory of a real boundary Nicolas was not allowed to cross: a similar ride had once been refused because it would mean leaving his brother in a stranger’s care. The dream’s force is intensified by the memory that his father warned him about stranger danger, ironically in a way that foreshadows a darker truth.
Flashbacks begin to reveal deeper problems. Nicolas’ father, it becomes clear, is not merely anxious but unstable. His wrist bears a deep scar that hints at a previous suicide attempt, underscoring a pattern of troubling behavior and behavior patterns that Nicolas could not fully understand at the time.
As the story unfolds, a devastating truth emerges: Nicolas’ father was not involved in a car accident as Nicolas had daydreamed, but rather abducted and harmed children, likely including the boy the police are searching for. In a crucial turn of events, Hodkann—who broke his promise to keep the father’s supposed secret agent status—describes the father’s car to the police during an investigation. This misjudgment ultimately proves crucial: it helps the authorities connect the father to the disappearance and leads to his arrest.
The film closes with a move toward resolution. Nicolas is driven home by Patrick, a supportive figure who has learned of the father’s arrest. Patrick chooses not to disclose the full truth to Nicolas right away, instead telling him that something terrible has happened and that he should hear it from his family. As they drive, the world outside continues to react: newspapers and TV reports begin to fill the air, and Patrick does what he can to shield Nicolas from the full glare of the media while the family navigates a painful and uncertain future.
