By turns, a sensuous angel and an incorrigible hellion, Hala (
Claire Danes) is her father's (
Gabriel Byrne) favourite and the thorn in her mother's (
Lena Olin) side. A young girl-woman teetering at the crossroads of destiny, Hala makes use of a basement window to experience more of what life has to offer.
In her effort to wrest from life all that she thinks it owes her, she is sucked into the spiral of her family's history and into adventures which she conducts late at night through the basement window.
When her escapades get her into "trouble" with handsome outsider Russell Schuster (Adam Trese), a "Polish Wedding" is planned ... one that doesn't quite go as intended.