Alexandre (Bruno Ganz) is a famous Greek writer and poet who is terminally ill. For him, dying is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to review the past and to connect with others. He has great regrets about his inability to finish a project about the work of a nineteenth-century poet. He also wonders why he spent so much of his life in exile from those who loved him most.

In his mind's eye, Alexandre replays the day when his wife Anna (Isabelle Renauld) had a party to show off their infant daughter to friends. As usual, he was aloof from the celebration. Alexandre drops by to visit his grown daughter (Iris Hatziantoniou) who informs him that she's sold the family house by the sea. And saying good-bye to his infirm mother (Alexandra Ladikou), the exhausted writer wonders aloud why nothing in his life seemed to work out as he expected.

Written and directed by Theo Angelopoulos, Eternity and a Day won the coveted Palme D'Or at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Alexandre's awareness of his impending death gives him a keen sense of life's sweetness. His heart goes out to a little boy (Anchilleas Skevis) who lives on the streets along with a large group of other illegal immigrants from Albania. He rescues him from some men who are secretly selling children to wealthy Greeks. By touching the boy's pain and fear, Alexandre softens his own heart. On the last night of his life, he and the boy take a magical ride on a bus where their senses come alive to the adventure of being. Eternity and a Day invites and encourages us to reap the blessings of true connection with others.