"I, you see, my boy, am an old whore.
Just so you understand, I've been with Karyotakis."

A hundred times used, Rena makes coffee one morning and sits down to tell her life story to a young visitor who happened to see her photo in a newspaper.

Born in the early 20th century in a brothel in Chavteia, a prostitute herself from the age of twelve, Rena's only guide is love: love for Markos, who betrays her to the Party, for Rula, who reveals to her the other side of love, for Vasilis, who collects the debris of her life and gives her a breath of hope before the deep darkness.

From embrace to embrace, from passion to passion, Rena becomes unwittingly a part of history - a shocked spot in the crowd, from the tobacco workers' strike in Thessaloniki and its bloody end to the December events, exile to the dry islands, the Polytechnic uprising.

And Rena lights another cigarette, refills her glass, kicks the bucket of her story - and memory comes alive, becomes company.

A heart like a machine's shutter, where each beat captures what you must remember.