Set during the Greek civil war. A villager is forced to leave his house and property and go to Thessaloniki with his daughter and son. They find refuge in an old building with hundreds of other people. They live a miserable life as the daughter becomes a whore, and the son has to work.

In 1974, a group of 11-year-old boys spend the last carefree summer of their childhood, unaware that the world of grown-ups, with its loves, passions, prejudices and curses, is about to seal their fate. Aaron, Stelios, Sakis, Galanos and Verios, "the acrobats", are best friends. School has closed for the summer holidays and the children spend their time playing games, running errands, and riding their bikes. Life is a game, into which they channel all their physical energy and imagination. They practice their diving abilities in a big cistern. It is a game through which their special talents and competitive spirit unfold. One is good at balancing acts, another at diving and another at somersaults. It is in this neighborhood that Aaron will spend the most important summer of his life: a rite of passage from childhood to adolescence, a time for learning about love, jealousy and friendship.

Markos, an ambitious young journalist on a provincial television channel is trying to retrieve a gun stolen from his Candid Camera-type show. His search leads him in the dead of winter to his mother's neck of the woods, one of the abandoned villages on the southwestern slopes of Mount Pindos. In his attempt to get the gun back he comes up against Elias, a strange young man who is the son of the guardian of the village. Their clash will have unforeseen results both for the two young men and for the few inhabitants of the village.