In Munich, the young photographer Herr Wallich has gone missing, causing his peer Herr Franzen to be questioned twice by the police. Franzen is not particularly bothered by Wallich's disappearance. He considers Wallich a less successful photographer and assumes that he has probably fled or killed himself because of his professional failures. Ever since his wife and son's deaths in a motorcar accident, Wallich can not bring himself to return to his cabin in the Black Forest where they used to vacation. He does, however, want to retreat to someplace fairly quiet and isolated, so he decides on a small town in the Alps called Garmish-Partenkirchen. When Wallich arrives, he sees families and other tourists sitting in restaurants and eating happily. He is afraid of putting on weight, however, so he decides to eat his meals alone in his hotel. He begins to exercise constantly, causing the hotel manager to ask him several times a day to quiet down for the sake of the other guests. He is eventually thrown out of the hotel, so he moves to Altenburg-St. Peter, a small village a little ways up the valley. There, Wallich continues exercising and buys expensive equipment and training manuals on mountain climbing. His only other way to pass the time comes from his radio. Wallich particularly enjoys listening to the symphony's performances on the Berlin station. One night, Wallich has a terrible nightmare in which he sees his wife boarding a streetcar. He tries to stop her, but she insists that she must go, and so he is left watching her disappear into the darkness. He awakes sweating and breathing heavily. He eventually falls asleep again, and this time he has a vivid dream of climbing the Schreuderspitze, the rigorous climb which he has been training for. The man begins to believe in life after death, which he had never given much thought to before. He imagines his son as a glowing figure, beckoning to him to join him on the other side. He dreams again of climbing the Schreuderspitze, but this time he reaches the summit only to see that the view is entirely obstructed by clouds. He continues to have these vivid dreams of climbing. In the next one, he looks out as he is climbing, the summit before him taller than he has ever seen. When he looks at the world below him, he sees Munich and watches its history play out in a loop. The next morning, he packs all of his things and takes a train back to Munich, riding alone and lost in silent reflection. He longs for the day that he will be reunited with his wife and son, but for now he decides to adjust again to life in the city and return to photography.