Liebestraum

An unseen man and woman share a clandestine affair as a silhouette of a man closes in. The couple are shot, suggesting a fatal conclusion to the liaison and implying a deadly connection to the past. The opening sequence hints at the long shadow that will haunt the story.

Thirty years after the events at the store, Nick, an architecture professor, travels to Elderstown, Illinois. He was adopted and has never met his birth mother, and he carries questions about his origins. He senses the past is reaching out to him as he steps into the town.

On his first night, Nick becomes obsessed with a beautiful cast-iron building across the street. He decides to study it before demolition, sensing that its history might reveal something about his own past. The building becomes the central thread linking the film's mysteries.

Paul, a college friend, explains that his construction company is tearing down the old downtown department store where the murder-suicide occurred thirty years earlier. He worries about erasing a key piece of the town's history, even as progress presses forward. The project sets the stage for the intersecting paths of Nick, Paul, and Jane.

A section of the building’s façade crumbles, and Nick acts quickly to push Paul out of harm’s way. The moment forges a bond of gratitude that pulls Nick into Paul’s social circle. The incident reinforces Nick’s resolve to study the building before it disappears.

Paul invites Nick to celebrate his wife Jane's birthday, offering him a chance to meet her in a social setting. The invitation marks the shift from casual acquaintance to potential involvement with both Paul’s circle and the building’s mystery. The party becomes the crucible for the evolving relationships.

At the party, Paul introduces Nick to Jane, a photographer who wants to document the same historic building. Their conversation hints at a shared curiosity and unspoken tension between them. The meet-cute quickly blossoms into a subtler, malevolent undertone as attraction grows.

Over the next four days, Nick’s attraction to Jane deepens while he continues to explore the building’s decaying interiors. He also spends time with his dying mother and unravels memories that tie his family to the town’s old tragedy. The lines between professional curiosity and personal longing blur as past and present converge.

It is revealed that the man who shot the couple in the opening scene is Nick’s father, and that the woman survived but lives in a fragile state. The discovery ties Nick’s current choices to his bloodline and the town’s cycle of violence. Flashbacks or discoveries illuminate how the past directly informs the present.

The investigation reveals that Nick’s mother killed the private investigator hired to uncover the affair. The act confirms that the family’s history remains dangerous and unresolved. The private investigator’s death closes the door on that particular inquiry and intensifies the family tragedy.

Nick and Jane’s relationship turns romantic, paralleling the original illicit affair from thirty years earlier. Paul discovers their growing bond and the potential parallels to the town’s tragedy. The parallel romance deepens the film’s structural echo of fate and choice.

Paul confronts Nick and Jane about the affair, but instead of reacting with anger or violence, he breaks down in tears and walks away. His response underscores the film’s theme of breaking the cycle of murder and letting the past rest. The emotional confrontation shifts the balance of power among the trio.

As Nick’s birth mother dies, the film closes with a quiet, somber note that the cycle of murder may finally break. Nick faces his origins with a new sense of responsibility, choosing to live beyond the town’s haunted history. The ending offers a fragile sense of resolution while leaving some questions unresolved.