It's 2004, and the news that Saddam Hussein has died sends shock waves through the Middle East. Shaho is the son of an elderly man of Iranian Kurdish heritage; the old man's health is failing him after suffering a stroke, and he's convinced he doesn't have long to live. Shaho, his father, and their family have been living in an Iraqi refugee camp for a while, but with the passing of Saddam, Shaho believes the time is right for them to return to Iran, where father can spend his last days in the land of his birth. However, as Shaho is making plans for the trip back to Iran, his cousin Sheelan visits the family for the first time in twenty years; her parents fled to Sweden when she was a child, where she's now a physician, and she wants her dying uncle to join her there where he'll be safe and well cared for.

Hossein Moradi, a 60-year-old worker from Abadan, has many times been forced to fire his colleagues in the shipbuilding factory on the employer’s order. However, this time he decides to create a chance for the workers by drawing lots. He also volunteers to be fired so to save ones place. One of the workers protests and gets into a fight with Hossein. A few days later his children give him a ticket to India to visit with his wife. But after a coulpe days someone breaks into his house steals the compensation money and the tickets. Hossein suspects that angry worker.