On a winter day the kind and humble shoemaker Simon finds a naked man in the street. He takes off his cloth coat, wraps it around the stranger and also gives him the extra pair of boots he was carrying. Then he takes him home, feeds him and let him stay for the night. The next day he tells him he can stay as his assistant, and asks him for his name. The man says he's simply called Michael.
Michael stays and works with Simon for six years. In all this time he only smiles three times... Then comes the day he leaves, and explains what happened to him...