Nisa Melis Telli

1960s Turkey countryside. A newly assigned teacher finds out that the solitary village is missing a school. He gets fond of the village people and especially a disabled man. The teacher helps the village to build a new school and educate the children and the disabled man.

Loving Istanbul couple Ayşe and Cemal need only a child to complete their life together, but they cannot conceive. To salvage Cemal’s pride, they resort to illegal means to procure a baby. This wild grab at a more perfect life proves their undoing, leading the couple to spiral toward separate futures. The couple's estrangement is intertwined with the film’s parallel narrative, in which a distant and neglectful single mom is raising her little boy, Can.

The film, shot in various neighborhoods of Istanbul, focuses on the choice of forgetting to live while planning life instead of living it. Cengiz, who hosts a radio show, has a steady job and a happy family life. One Sunday, he encounters an event that turns his life upside down, and from that day on, all sorts of misfortunes pile up. Cengiz is now left alone with his only daughter, Günce, and has no one else in his life. Years pass, and Günce turns five, but instead of ending, the problems continue to grow. This time, Cengiz faces what may be the biggest nightmare of his life: the risk of losing his daughter, Günce.

Set in the 1960s, the story of the Akarsu family includes Ali, Cemile and their four children: Berrin, a law student, Aylin and Mete, high school students, and 5 year old Osman. Ali begins an affair with Caroline, a Dutch woman, which leads to the disintegration of the family.