In 1979, the political upheavals following the Iranian Islamic revolution drove many Iranian Kurds to take refuge in Iraq, where they were placed in camps under appalling living conditions. In 2004, Sheelan - a young doctor of Kurdish origin who had managed to flee to Sweden with her parents - takes advantage of the fall of Saddam Hussein to return to Iraq; she hopes to find her uncle who she hasn't heard from in over twenty years. Having suffered a stroke, he has lost his ability to speak. His loving son wishes to take him back to his native land, so that he can live out the rest of his days in peace. Unable to convince her uncle and cousin to leave with her for Sweden, Sheelan accompanies them on a long and stormy journey to Iran.