In the 1960s, in an undetermined place in the Alps, an eagle couple has two hatching eggs. When both eaglets are born, their mother knows that she must only raise one as their successor. In an ensuing fight with another eagle, the eaglets' father dies when he crashes to the ground. One of the eaglets shortly falls from the nest, and his mother, due by nature to maintain the survivor, ignores the eaglet's cry for help.