Night. Roman, a young man, gets out of a train at a small, deserted railway station. He is carrying a small black briefcase; actually, he only wants to buy a packet of cigarettes before he returns to the train. However, he is distracted by the chatter of the lady in the kiosk and misses the departing train. As it was the last one, he has no choice but to look for a hotel in the little, deserted village. He strikes it lucky, and finds a charming room with a bath. Before he does anything else, he decides to take a rest from his journey. He watches the TV. The late news reports a bank robbery. Roman opens his briefcase, which is filled with banknotes… He takes a bundle of notes from the briefcase and puts it in his wallet. Then he gets undressed and goes into the bathroom. He wants to run a bath. But he finds the dead body of a young girl lying in the bathtub. Having robbed a bank, he doesn't want to call the police, and has no choice but to finish the unhappy 'work' of the murderer and dispose of the body. As he is a registered hotel guest, suspicion would fall on him if he didn't. The following morning he buys himself a large trunk, puts the body in it and leaves the hotel. On a country road, he comes across a petrol station. Without more ado, he pushes the corpse through an open cellar window. The girl lands in a double-pram in the cellar. Roman, relieved but still somewhat dazed, begins to make his way back to the village. Suddenly, his heart almost stops.
He sees the very same girl whose corpse he has just ditched. She goes past him. The same red dress, the same colour hair, the same face. Somehow he has the feeling that everything is repeating itself. The village, for example, seems to be uncannily familiar, although he has never been there before. He is absolutely certain of that.
Back in the hotel, he runs into the owner, who tells him a lot about this village and its past. A dark past. A hundred years earlier there were witches and a sorcerer in the village! Legend has it that the witches are fond of reincarnating themselves here … This, in turn, attracts sects to the village. Even now. Each spring, strange people visit the village. They are militant, brutal, modern-day witch-hunters. Although nobody knows this yet. The belief in witches has already claimed a victim… It is obvious who the next one is likely to be: The story suddenly switches to the little girl in the red dress. She is on holiday, spending a rather boring day with her parents. Her father is a petrol-pump attendant. He doesn't have much to do, because hardly any cars stop at his petrol station. Sometimes a bus full of strange people calls in. Only in spring… They sometimes have a reserve can filled with petrol. For witches are normally burned - if the culprits are not disturbed by hotel guests who rent a room at 11 p.m. The girl's mother looks for a tenant to sublet a room to, because they need the money.
One morning, the mother asks girl to take a basket full of groceries to her grandmother as a surprise. Her twin sister is also waiting there for her...
So the girl in the red dress sets off. Instead of following her parents' advice and sticking to the path, she tries a short-cut through the wood. On a road crossing the wood she comes across a large bus. She is irritated by the smell of joss sticks and the strange religious implements in the bus. As she catches sight of a crucifix she feels sick … She arrives at her grandmother's house. But her grandmother and her twin sister are nowhere to be found.
At exactly the same time, her parents finally manage to let the room. To Roman. Because he is following the child: from the moment he saw the girl he hasn't been able to get her off his mind. Although he has never seen her before - and he is certain of that - she nevertheless seems somehow familiar... But not because of her twin sister, who he saw as a corpse. A time way back in the distant past increasingly forces its way into his conscious mind.
In the meantime, someone has stolen the money from his briefcase. Strangely enough, this doesn't bother him in the least. His mind is occupied with something else.
When the girl returns from her grandmother's house and tells them that no-one was home, nobody panics at first. For the grandmother could have gone away with her granddaughter. However, there is no way that her parents could know how far their journey has taken them...
When Roman meets the girl face to face, he recalls a dream he had a long time ago. In his dream he was a sorcerer in a village that was plagued by witches like no other. The girl was one of the witches…. Perhaps his wife. A dream… Or is it a memory?
Switzerland
