Sara is a single mother and a novelist. As her daughter Reema sleeps fitfully against the not-so-distant noise of mortars and gunfire, she’s unable to write. Surrounded by trauma and devastation, she scours the internet for news of the city’s death toll, trying to keep track of the attacks. When her closest friend and neighbour, Sabiha, a former actress and a Christian, is forced into exile, Sara begins to fight back and recover a sense of defiance. But as the random killing escalates and gets closer to home, she begins to look for a way out for herself and her daughter…

Sara and Reema’s story is woven with that of their neighbours. These include Kamal, a former prisoner-of-war who is trying to erase the past; his pregnant wife Mona, who can’t forget her lost children from a previous marriage; her mother Nermeen, whose son was ‘disappeared’ by the regime; and the grieving Haider, a teenager slowly falling into bad company.