In which the somber Old Year takes a moment's rest upon the steps of a city-hall, reflecting with weary eyes upon the chronicles of its busy and often turbulent passage through mortal affairs, whilst the bright and hopeful New Year maiden arrives, bearing fresh gifts and radiant promises for the world to come. Their fleeting yet poignant sisterly dialogue reveals the perennial struggles and small triumphs of human progress, set against the unyielding march of Time, as one departs and the other begins her mysterious and delicate pilgrimage among men.