The Cavern
Karl Wisent is a young German teacher living in Paris in 1993, where he teaches at an all girl's school run by an order of Catholic nuns. He is married to Heike, an artist's agent, who lives in Berlin. Although Karl is still married, he and Heike live separate lives. On a Saturday afternoon in the Spring his life is turned upside down when he meets Helene, a young legal secretary, who lives with Gaspard Leon, an up and coming actor. Karl is ready to end his marriage to Heike and marry Helene, when she announces that although she loves Karl she could never leave Gaspard.
Shortly, after Helene's pronouncement, Karl receives a letter from his Grandmother offering him her house in the south of France for the summer. He accepts her invitation and travels to Avignon first and then to her house in the hills to the east. There he meets old friends from his childhood, explores a series of caves full of primitive drawings with an English anthropologist, chases mice and bats from his house, and saves a stranded turtle from drowning in his pool. The bucolic life, however, turns sour when Heike shows up with her new boyfriend and three of her clients, an American friend returns unexpectedly from the first Gulf War, and an Irish poet writing an epic poem on the myth of Marsyas arrives from Dublin. With a house full of people Karl must deal with his past, struggle with the present, and work out a future.
Through the myth of Marsyas, the archetype of the Black Madonna, and group of French ladies who decide to help poor confused Karl, he begins to work out a path for his life alone.