Robert, a 13-year-old German boy, sets out to try and find his father, who's in Turkmenistan. On his arrival there he meets up with a local boy who agrees to help him, but they are abandoned by their adult guides and must fend for themselves.

After many years in a Soviet punishment camp Sadik returns home to his village. There he must learn that his brother, who has always been a conformist follower of the Soviet system, lives with the same conformism in post-communist Turkmenistan.