Crisscrossing between the stories of Rima, a dynamic recruit whose ambition is soon thwarted by Islamic convention; the disaffected Jabir, who is looking for a way out of a cycle of poverty and Asimah, who desperately searches the streets for her kidnapped daughter.
The little Syafii Maarif struggled to survive in order to get higher education in the culture where education is considered irrelevant.
