The Healing Effects of Self-Praise

Love is the reason why Abel Znorko, a Nobel Prize-winning writer, lives far from people and civilization - to escape it, he has hidden himself away and denied its power. In solitude, in his luxurious cabin in the middle of forests and meadows, he enjoys life, yet drowns in his own loneliness.

One day Nicolas Gobert arrives - an alleged journalist from an obscure regional newspaper. He has traveled all the way from France to speak with the arrogant author about his latest novel, Denied Love - a book composed of intimate love letters addressed to a mysterious woman with the initials H. M. What begins as an ordinary conversation gradually becomes a psychological duel between two men with completely different views on life, relationships, sexuality, and the nature of love. Yet they are bound by an unspoken secret - one knows it, the other has no idea about the skeleton in the closet. Znorko treats his guest chaotically and without respect, but the guest pursues his goal like a bulldog, and with each new question it becomes clearer that he did not come for journalistic work. Truths surface that shatter the carefully constructed identity of both men into fragments of half-truths, self-deceptions, and assumptions.

Questions multiply: what is the writer hiding and what does the mysterious journalist know about him? As mysteries unfold, the game turns into a cruel game of truth. Both men, with their different views on love, relationships, sexuality, and life itself, exchange blows like two boxers in a ring - until they reach shocking revelations that lead them to the threshold of questions about being and non-being, with information they must live with from that moment on.