At 40, Miriam radiates serene beauty and tranquility, a confidence and self-assurance as vast as the sea close to her summer home. But in interfering in the love life of her son, she suddenly finds the vast horizons of her life vanish in a fog of jealousy and rejection.

Are the sun-dappled, gently realistic dramas of Eric Rohmer and the sinister sexual mind-games of early Polanski really so far apart? An official selection at Cannes and Berlinale, Summer ’04 weaves these two strands into a most unexpected double helix: a seductive summer holiday with an icy center.