The story is set in the 1930s, somewhere in the mountains in Romania. It centres on Simion, a ranger who lives like a hermit in the middle of the forest. One day, he stumbles upon a beaten-up woman, Irina, and tries to find out who has hurt her. He also tries to stay away from her but fails.。In 1929, an expedition of university botanists enter an uncharted forest where they discover, and must escape an ancient organism.。帕布斯特的《一个灵魂的秘密》(Geheimnisse einer Seele, 1926)是第一部在电影叙事中严肃地尝试使用新弗洛伊德学派精神分析原理的影片。渴望使用科学方法解决心理问题,使得《一个灵魂的秘密》成为新客观派的另一种变体。这部影片实际上是一个案例研究,一个看似普通的男人,患上了一种刀具恐惧症,他试图从一个精神分析学家那里得到治疗。尽管影片对精神分析的描述太过简单,但一些表现主义风格的梦境段落给影片增添相当多的趣味。 (波德维尔等《世界电影史》第2版,第154—155页。)。