The Soviet Union's fall in the early 1990s forced Mongolia to make a sudden transition to a capitalist economy. This rapid introduction of a free market produced overwhelming economic confusion, causing unprecedented levels of unemployment and plunging nearly half the population into poverty. By the winter of 1998, thousands of abandoned children were living under the streets of the capitol, Ulan Bator. With winter temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero, the manholes provide access to a vast network of steam pipes that heat the city's homes, allowing the children to survive. Living literally underground in a lawless no man's land of theft and violence, the children form packs in order to stay alive. Shot over ten years, the film traces the lives of Boldoo, Dashaa, and Oyun, three of these "manhole children," who reach adulthood while living on the street.