Adem is a successful doctor and an aspiring politician standing on an anti-corruption ticket in Tirana, capital of impoverished Albania. Happily married to Sofi he has two children who both attend university: Enea who plays soccer and Sonila, an accomplished violinist.
Shehu and Morina are government agents and small-time crooks. Under instructions from the corrupt Chief of Police they have been putting Adem under pressure to lose the election. They spy on his wife, beat him up and later threaten the lives of Enea and Sonila.
One day, after a university soccer match in Elbasan, the two agents try to force Adem’s car off the road as they travel back across the mountains. The car crashes into a ravine but bruised and shaken they survive.
After much soul-searching Adem reluctantly sells up and pays Astrit, a people smuggler, to get them to safety in Britain. After a deadly high-speed crossing of the Adriatic during which a number of asylum seekers are drowned they are sealed in a lorry and end up in Glasgow, Scotland, where they battle against racism and bureaucracy. When his application for asylum is rejected Adem gradually descends into depression and self-doubt.
Enea’s football skills, though, are noticed by Mack, a soccer scout. He’s invited to a trial by a professional club but discovers he can’t sign while he’s an asylum seeker. Sonila, meanwhile, is taken under the wing of Sandy, a music teacher, and she flourishes in a youth orchestra. She’s composed a tune which was first played by a string quartet in Tirana and it becomes the musical theme of the film. It develops in different ways until Sandy scores it for full orchestra which he plans to premier at a New Year concert.
Adem is befriended by John, a hospital doctor, and it’s while he’s visiting the hospital he rediscovers his vocation to medicine. He wants to be a doctor again even if it means returning to Albania.
One winter’s day, on his way home from the hospital, Adem is shocked and frightened at seeing Shehu and Morina outside a pub. They’ve escaped from the new regime in Albania and have become drug dealers and pimps in Glasgow’s underworld. By now Adem has been refused asylum in Britain. He faces up to his fears and decides to return to Tirana and his medical career but not before settling one last score in a dark tenement on the night of Sonila’s concert. But the dark forces that want to keep him quiet aren’t finished yet…
