Synopsis:

When fifteen year-old Antigone receives a letter from her grandmother Maria who lives in the Turkish-occupied area of Cyprus she decides to go and visit her and to see for herself the conditions under which the few remaining Greek-Cypriot inhabitants of Carpasia live. Maria, who is seventy years old, has always lived in the northern part of the island, now under Turkish occupation. Her constant companions are two ten year-old boys, Orestes and Alexandros. A special relationship has developed between the three and she spends most of her time with them. Despite the pressures brought to bear upon her by the Turkish forces of occupation to abandon her house, she stubbornly refuses to budge. The pressure comes chiefly from a Turkish couple, he is a mainland Turk sent to "colonize" the occupied section of the island and she is a Turkish-Cypriot, who want to force Maria to leave so that they can take her house. After Maria's refusal to heed their "advice" the couple decides to do away with her. Maria rests her hopes for the protection of her house in Kiazim, her old Turkish-Cypriot neighbour. Kiazim, who is in his seventies and who in the past had also advised Maria to leave her house, but for different reasons, now promises to help her.