On Sulawesi island in Indonesia, the Toraja people practice a religion called Aluk To Dolo, and this film centers on one funeral held for a high-ranking community member. The body has already been preserved in embalming fluid for three months, kept in the family home while relatives prepare a three-day ceremony that functions as much as a public event as a burial. The film shows buffalo fights staged as entertainment, pigs presented as gifts to the grieving family, and open rivalry between families competing for the honor of carrying the coffin. Buffalo are sacrificed in large numbers, on the belief that their souls will accompany the dead into the afterlife and preserve the family's social standing there. On the final day, mourning gives way abruptly to a mud and water fight among the participants, a release valve built into the ceremony itself. The camera stays close to the rites as they happen, letting the contrast between grief, spectacle, and celebration carry the film without narration explaining it away.