Letters and other Secrets

At the center of this black comedy is Ruth, who runs the post office in a small Swiss village. Ruth is actually quite content with her life and her position in the village, as long as she ignores what happened to her ten years earlier, when Karolin, her «best friend», cruelly stole and married Raphael, the love of Ruth’s life. After Raphael’s untimely death, widow Karolin moves back to the village where she shamelessly exploits the old friendship by extracting all kinds of favors from Ruth. Hoping to find a new man, Karolin soon places an ad in the paper. At first she fancies handsome Alfred, but when he refuses to meet her right away, she quickly sends him packing. In an uncharacteristic breach of postal rules, Ruth opens and reads Karolin’s letter to Alfred and, by tweaking the message, makes it her own. Soon a tender friendship develops between Ruth and Alfred, who thinks that Ruth is the wealthy widow Karolin. But there is one thing Ruth doesn’t know: Alfred is doing time in prison. When Karolin gets wind of the budding romance, she reacts in her own inimitable style: unfair and beastly. But this time around Ruth is wildly determined to defend her luck even if it means murdering her «best friend». Everything goes smoothly until Ruth discovers that Alfred is a notorious marriage swindler. She is still willing to forgive him – if only his love is true. In the end Ruth does what she has to do…