Nar­in awak­ens to a dev­as­tat­ing sight in the vil­lage of Zêrav—a sight that marks the begin­ning of an unthink­able night­mare. The sacred water sources that her peo­ple have relied on for gen­er­a­tions have been poi­soned overnight. Thou­sands of bags filled with pes­ti­cides and oth­er harm­ful sub­stances lit­ter the land­scape, mak­ing the water undrink­able and leav­ing the vil­lagers with­out access to essen­tial resources. Des­per­a­tion sets in as sev­er­al men from the vil­lage head to a near­by Yazi­di set­tle­ment in search of help, only to find that their neigh­bors are in the same dire sit­u­a­tion. Mean­while, they dis­cov­er that Mus­lim vil­lagers, although some are will­ing to lend a hand, show a reluc­tance to help oth­ers, fur­ther strain­ing frag­ile rela­tion­ships. With the heat inten­si­fy­ing and hope dwin­dling, the vil­lagers are forced to rely on a few remain­ing bot­tles of water, each drop now a pre­cious com­mod­i­ty in their fight for sur­vival.

Days go by, and the vil­lagers’ efforts to clear debris from foun­tains are in vain as the Tigris Riv­er remains pol­lut­ed, fur­ther deep­en­ing their despair. As night falls, the attack­ers return, this time tar­get­ing the land’s nat­ur­al resources—burning olive groves and reduc­ing fer­tile fields to ash. Nar­in watch­es help­less­ly from her win­dow as the land­scape around her changes, the once-thriv­ing vil­lage now reduced to a scene of utter dev­as­ta­tion. The hatred and vio­lence around her seem inescapable, and Nar­in is left con­tem­plat­ing the bru­tal real­i­ty of their sit­u­a­tion, real­iz­ing how frag­ile life is amidst such vio­lence. Her mind races with thoughts of sur­vival and the uncer­tain­ty of what tomor­row will bring.

The next day, Nar­in receives an unex­pect­ed phone call from her father, Khaled, who is in Bagh­dad. He informs her that he has been detained at a check­point, but hear­ing of the water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and destruc­tion at home, he decides to return at once. How­ev­er, his jour­ney back is not with­out dan­ger. As he trav­els, road­blocks and increas­ing threats from extrem­ist groups impede his progress, mak­ing his return seem impos­si­ble. Mean­while, back in Zêrav, Grandma’s rest­less­ness grows with each pass­ing hour. Unable to sleep since the poi­son­ing of the wells, she notices a chill­ing change—the Kur­dish forces that had once pro­tect­ed the vil­lage have mys­te­ri­ous­ly dis­ap­peared. Fear quick­ly spreads among the vil­lagers when news reach­es them that thou­sands of troops have left, aban­don­ing the Yazidis to fend for them­selves. In the face of such uncer­tain­ty, the vil­lagers debate whether to stay or flee. Ulti­mate­ly, they decide to remain, dis­play­ing white flags in the hope of avoid­ing vio­lence and show­ing their sur­ren­der to the approach­ing threat.

As Khaled arrives at anoth­er Yazi­di set­tle­ment, the sit­u­a­tion becomes even more dire. Mil­i­tants have tak­en con­trol of the streets, and the once-peace­ful vil­lage is now a bat­tle­ground. Among the mil­i­tants is Hajji Amer, a man Khaled once con­sid­ered a trust­ed ally, but who now leads the armed force with a cru­el deter­mi­na­tion. The Yazidis, includ­ing Khaled, are stripped of their pos­ses­sions and threat­ened with vio­lence. Although Khaled tries to remain calm and res­olute in the face of these harsh real­i­ties, his resolve is test­ed when they are led to a water cis­tern and exe­cut­ed en masse. In a stroke of fate, Khaled sur­vives, severe­ly injured and alone, and with great effort, he makes a des­per­ate call to his moth­er-in-law, urg­ing her and Nar­in to flee the vil­lage at once and seek safe­ty on Mount Sin­jar.

Grandma’s voice trem­bles with urgency as she urges Nar­in and the few remain­ing rel­a­tives to escape while they still have a chance. The night is fraught with ten­sion as they begin their jour­ney, not know­ing what dan­gers await. As dawn breaks, their hope fades as they are ambushed by ISIS fight­ers, and chaos erupts around them. Forced to flee into the des­o­late moun­tains, they are pur­sued relent­less­ly, with each step bring­ing them fur­ther from every­thing they knew. Yet, in the midst of the con­fu­sion, Nar­in and her fam­i­ly cling to the last ves­tiges of hope, know­ing that sur­vival is now their only goal.