THE WEEPING HOUSE

In the rugged solitude of the Bavarian Alps in 1830, a man named Carey Alsch has carved out a life of quiet resignation. Haunted by an unspoken tragedy and consumed by a deep loneliness, Carey spends his days in the remote wilds, studying animals, tending to his aging hound, and avoiding human contact. His past, heavy with loss, has left him wary of people and unable to trust the world beyond the forest. The mountains, with their vast silence, are his only companions--as well as his old hound, Treu. 

That is, until the Reinalz family invites him over for dinner one evening. The Reinalzes are a large, boisterous clan, with eleven children ranging in age from toddlers to teenagers, who seem to fill the air with warmth and life. Though Carey has always kept his distance from neighbors, something about the Reinalzes' open-heartedness and unspoken understanding of his solitude slowly draws him in. The family, sensing his isolation, invites Carey to join their community, share stories by the fire, and become a part of their daily lives. Over time, Carey comes to value the friendship they offer, holding onto it like a lifeline connecting him to a world he thought he could never be for him.

Through the Reinalzes, Carey meets a young woman named Nonny Von Stein, a striking young woman who has come to live with them, seemingly abandoning her current life of wealth in the city. Nonny, though gentle and kind, is a mystery to Carey. Though she seemes determined to carve out a new life in Mittenwald, she regularly disappears to fufill strange summons from home. Her restless spirit seems divided, as if she is searching for something—perhaps a place to belong or a way to fully shirk off the ties of her old life. Both working towards the same goal--relinquishing long-held bonds of the past--they form a fast friendship in the alpine landscape, where Carey begins to instruct his first pupil in the ways of the wilderness and mountains.