Lisa, an intelligent and attractive high school senior, is on a quest to understand happiness. Guided by her middle-class values, Christian faith, and a keen interest in science and philosophy, she navigates life with her unpredictable, alcoholic mother and her own inner demons. Dreaming of a freedom as delicate as a butterfly’s, Lisa finds solace in her final year when she meets Christos, an accomplished long-distance swimmer.

Captivated by Christos’s love for beauty and his laid-back nature, Lisa joins his family’s Greek band as a singer and dancer after graduation. Fortuitously inheriting substantial assets, she establishes a thriving taverna, though at the expense of her health.

However, Lisa’s world shatters when she uncovers Christos’s hidden traits of deception and dishonesty, defended by him through Machiavellian principles and a curious analogy to Santa Claus. This revelation challenges her deeply held Christian virtues and scientific rationale. Resolute to win her trust, Christos undergoes a transformation, adopting honesty and humility.

Ultimately, the couple finds common ground and retreats to Christos’s inherited farm on a picturesque Greek island. There, amidst ancient stone houses, pencil pines, and the crystalline Aegean Sea, they rediscover each other and perhaps the elusive happiness Lisa has been seeking.