La petite Chartreuse

Eight-year-old Eva and her mother have a very positive CHILD-TO-CHILD-RELATION. The mother is incapable of mature behaviour when problems arise. When the mother forgets to fetch Eva at school in her car, Eva does not know the way home. Panicking and crying she just runs and is overrun by a car. The driver is obviously innocent. He is a second-hand bookseller (Etienne) and a mountain climber and has a phenomenal memory. The hospital cannot tell whether Eva will ever wake up from her coma, or will speak or move. But it is important that she is much spoken to while she is in coma. The bookseller takes upon himself the task the mother cannot do. He visits the child for hours every day and tells her Jack London's snow stories, which he knows by heart. Eventually Eva wakes up. She is still mute and will go only if Etienne holds her hands and actively walks her. She is bored by all kinds of child play but fascinated by the snowy mountains that can be seen from the hospital. Suddenly Eva deteriorates seriously and might die. Desperately, Etienne takes her on mountain climbing in snowstorm. He himself dies from frost. But when a helicopter finds the couple, Eva moves on her own for the first time since the accident.