Saba Vahedyousefi

Winter. Somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg. Negin and Nazgol find a sum of money frozen deep within the sidewalk ice and try to find a way to get it out. Massoud leads a group of befuddled tourists upon an increasingly-strange walking tour of Winnipeg historic sites. Matthew leaves his job at the Québec government and embarks upon a mysterious journey to visit his estranged mother.

Afghanistan, Spring 2002 — Following the fall of the taliban regime, the country faces extreme poverty. To feed his family, a father is forced to sell his 15-year-old daughter to a 65-year-old man. Refusing to accept this fate for her child, the mother, determined to give her a brighter future, arranges a marriage with a man living in Montreal. In return, she makes a solemn promise: the children born of this union will one day marry their cousins remaining in Afghanistan. Montreal, Spring 2020 — The pact resurfaces. Now well integrated into Quebec society, Zarmina refuses to let her 15-year-old daughter marry her cousin in Afghanistan. Her firm opposition triggers a tragic chain of events.