Based on a true event, Pardon tells the tragicomic story of three friends who end up in prison when they are mistaken as members of a terrorist organization. Ibrahim's fear of uniforms makes him runaway whenever he sees one. Because of this, police mistakes him with a terrorist and takes him and his friend Muzo into custody. Fooled by the police during the interrogation they name another friend, Aydin, in hope of saving themselves. As they all end up in prison, they remember the families and lovers they left behind.

The film depicts a world in which Atatürk never became leader, the War of Independence never took place, and the Ottoman Republic continues to exist in a form adapted to the present day. The continuation of the Ottoman Republic instead of the Republic of Turkey, Ankara not being the capital, signs and license plates being in both Turkish and Arabic, and the sultan wearing a suit under his caftan are some of the tragicomic situations that make up the film's story.

The year is 1996, about five years before September 11. But the foundations are already being laid. Because the world is a complicated place, and nothing starts just one day before. The place is Afghanistan, in the heat of civil war. Thousands of people who have lost their lives, their possessions, and their homes are waiting for the fighting to end. Yusuf and his friends, however, are going there for humanitarian aid. As Yusuf and his friends prepare to set out, Osama bin Laden is crossing the Afghan border to his new headquarters. Yusuf and his friends meet thousands of people in Afghanistan that year, and one of them is a young man who will become known to the whole world on September 11, 2001.