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Spring’s (2014) premise is built around Louise (Nadia Hilker), a centuries-old woman who stays alive by getting pregnant every couple decades, absorbing the fetus’s stem cells, and using them to fuel her never-ending life. If she ever falls in love, her maternal instincts will kick in and her body will opt to utilize its own stem cells instead of those of the fetus, rendering her mortal and able to die. It all sounds pretty silly on paper, but is presented in the film’s context as a metaphor for the dangers, challenges and sacrifices of love.

Spring follows Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci), an American expat living in Italy as he finds purpose in his insignificant life. After he falls in love with Louise and later discovers her unique lifestyle requirements, he decides he wants to be with her anyway, and is determined to convince her that reciprocating his love would be worth mortality. While the film’s ending doesn’t offer a black-or-white answer to whether or not Louise finally falls for Evan, the implication is that she does. This leads to a question about consequence: What becomes of the child she’s carrying?

Earlier in the film, Louise takes Evan to Pompeii, where she introduces him to her original family. They were washed over with the Vesuvius eruption and remain entombed in stone. Louise explains that when the volcano erupted, her mother, who had the same conditional immortality as her, chose to stay and die with her father. That act of love rendered her mother mortal, and transferred the magic onto Louise, who has been avoiding the fate ever since.

In Spring’s final scene, it’s implied that Louise finally fell in love with Evan. That will have the same effect, granting her mortality, and Evan’s future child will go through the same 20-year cycles of existence until it falls in love.