An architect gets a contract to build a bank. But the condition for this is that the bank mustn’t look like a bank.
Tom has been waiting for a prestigious contract like this forever, hoping for his final breakthrough. But the search for the right architectural solution to the task plunges Tom into a crisis. He discards draft after draft.
At the same time, he is forced to realise that his marriage isn’t a marriage anymore, even though it still looks like one. Judith has been meeting up with Daniel, a successful (unlike Tom) and creative painter, for half a year.
Now, at the request of Judith, Daniel of all people is supposed to help Tom with an idea so he doesn’t lose the contract with the bank again. But Tom refuses to accept another’s idea and wants to save his marriage instead, seeing this as the much more important task.
Both men want to design a perfect building and at the same time win over Judith. Both men are also planning a house for her. Tom designs houses that challenge their inhabitants to think and to criticise society; Daniel designs houses that don’t challenge anyone to do anything and instead lure people in with pleasures.
In the end, the contractor will decide for or against Tom’s draft and Judith will decide, as well, but very differently from what Tom and Daniel expected.