In the vil­lage of Zêrav, the inhab­i­tants awak­en one morn­ing to a dev­as­tat­ing sight; their sacred water sources have been poi­soned overnight. Hun­dreds of sacks of pes­ti­cides and debris have been dumped, leav­ing them des­per­ate. Sev­er­al men jour­ney to a near­by Yazi­di vil­lage for help but find that their neigh­bors have also been affect­ed. With no potable water avail­able, they ven­ture to check on near­by Mus­lim vil­lagers, only to dis­cov­er their foun­tains remain untouched. A few are will­ing to help, but many refuse, an indi­ca­tion of ris­ing ten­sions. With the heat inten­si­fy­ing, they col­lect bot­tles of water, painful­ly aware that their fam­i­ly mem­bers are rely­ing on them.

As the day wears on, the vil­lagers strug­gle to clear debris from their foun­tains, yet the Tigris Riv­er remains pol­lut­ed, too. Days lat­er, at night, their ene­my returns, this time tar­get­ing the trees, burn­ing olive groves and reduc­ing fer­tile fields to waste­lands. Nar­in, a young girl, observes the destruc­tion from her win­dow and feels a deep sad­ness. She reflects on the hatred sur­round­ing them and the fragili­ty of life amidst such vio­lence.

Nar­in’s father, Khaled, calls her the next day from Bagh­dad, inform­ing her that he has been detained at a check­point. Upon hear­ing about the water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion and destruc­tion, he resolves to return home swift­ly. Yet, his jour­ney is com­pli­cat­ed by road­blocks and dan­ger, as Yazidis and oth­er minor­i­ty groups face threats from extrem­ists.

Mean­while, Grand­ma grows increas­ing­ly rest­less, unable to sleep since the poi­son­ing of the wells. Ear­ly one morn­ing, she notices that the Kur­dish forces pro­tect­ing Zêrav have van­ished, prompt­ing fear and pan­ic among the vil­lagers. News spreads that thou­sands of troops have with­drawn, leav­ing the Yazidis vul­ner­a­ble. The vil­lagers debate whether to stay or flee but ulti­mate­ly decide to dis­play white flags and wait, hop­ing to avoid vio­lence.

As Khaled arrives at anoth­er Yazi­di loca­tion, he wit­ness­es mil­i­tants com­man­deer­ing the streets. Hajji Amer, a man he once con­sid­ered a friend, is now lead­ing the armed men. Khaled and the oth­er Yazi­di men are forced to leave their homes, stripped of valu­ables, and threat­ened with vio­lence. As the mil­i­tants turn hos­tile, Khaled’s resolve strength­ens. How­ev­er, tragedy strikes as they are tak­en to a water cis­tern and exe­cut­ed en masse.

In the chaos, Khaled sur­vives, bleed­ing and alone, and man­ages to call his moth­er-in-law, urg­ing her and Nar­in to escape imme­di­ate­ly. They must flee to Mount Sin­jar for safe­ty. Mean­while, Nar­in awak­ens to her grandmother’s urgent plea to leave with the few rel­a­tives will­ing to escape, set­ting off into the uncer­tain night, unaware of the per­ilous jour­ney ahead. As dawn breaks, they face an ambush from ISIS, and chaos ensues, leav­ing the sur­vivors flee­ing into the des­o­late moun­tain with dwin­dling hope.