When their father is killed in a blood feud, Yusuf and Kenan, two shepherd boys, flee to Istanbul in search of their uncle. They become involved with the streetboys, and Yusuf turns to crime although Kenan wants to learn a trade.

A urban Turkish teacher is transferred for political reasons to a backward Kurdish village in the mountains near the Iranian border. He is welcomed with distrust, but during that harsh year the mutual cultural misunderstandings fade away.