A psychiatrist's adulterous past continues to haunt her and her husband after they move to India.

Bonnie, a nine-year-old single child, is part of a family of three living in the Netherlands. They have a love of elephants, passed on by Bonnie's grandfather's grandfather who worked on a game reserve in Africa, and Bonnie feels that she instinctively does things like an elephant as a result. Her single mother, Lis, is bi-polar and at times spends days on end without even getting out of bed. Then there are other times when she will manically do wild acts, such as impromptu dancing in public. As a result, Bonnie's sturdy and stable grandmother must hold the family together by doing all the cooking, etc. After her grandmother is killed by a car, Bonnie becomes the most responsible family member and struggles with preparing meals and getting her reluctant mother to take her medication. She also must dodge Jorien, a social worker who is attempting to place her in a foster home.

Muriel moves from a small village to the big city of Brussels, hoping to start an independent life working as a museum guide. She rents a room from Laura, who has a room to spare now that her mother is in hospital. Laura is a vital and candid woman who has a child-wish but leads a very chaotic life. Meanwhile, Muriel's mother has a hard time accepting that her daughter leads a life of her own now, and she also faces some changes at the factory where she works. The movie follows the interconnected lifes of these three women of three different generations, who all face different problems.

Fifteen-year-old Sammy has recently become aware of desires she awakens in men but one man to whom she is herself attracted is her older brother Jacob. With an institutionalized father and a mother neither sibling has seen for years, Jacob provides for the household through his trade in meat declared unfit for human consumption. This situation has sufficed for years but the dedication with which Jacob watches over his little sister leaves her no room to mature as a woman...