Ahmet, who confuses an Edgar Degas painting that his father brought home for a woman named Fahriye, who is constantly talked about in the house; interprets the unrest at home through the painting, and the painting becomes a symbol of forbidden facts for Ahmet.

After several years of numbly mourning his parents death, 26 year old Selim takes a chance on the US lottery for passports and wins. He decides to sell the family olive grove to raise enough money to live in Manhattan and to break all roots to Turkey, leaving his girlfriend behind. When Selim's aged grand uncle, Nasuhi returns from Russia after 58 years he asks Selim to visit with him the olive grove of his youth. Before they depart, Nasuhi finds a beaten Russian girl, Olga who was robbed when she tried to sell herself to raise money to continue her own search for her sea faring father.

A chance meeting on a train in the Turkish countryside leads two women to a journey that shows them the importance of setting a path for one's life.