Nobody escapes the changes in the seasons which give rhythm to our existence, from birth to death; not even the two monks who share their hermitage isolated in the mountains. Under the sharp eyes of the older monk, the younger one experiences the seasons. Spring: a child monk laughs as he watches a frog trying to get rid of a stone on its back. He laughs less when the same fate is inflicted on him as punishment by the old monk. Summer: the young monk is now 17, and experiences his first feelings of love with the arrival of a young, convalescent girl who has come to rest. Autumn: in his 30s and back at the hermitage, the old monk whips him when he tries to commit suicide in front of Buddha's statue. Winter: now in his mature years, the monk returns to the hermitage, no longer inhabited. A pregnant woman arrives. Spring: the old monk converses with nature. Nearby, a child monk plays...