The story took place in 1930s in Soviet Armenia. Arakel Aloyan is a naive peasant who left his homeland in Western Armenia after Armenian genocide of 1915, witnessed his village burnt and women raped. All the efforts of family members to pursue Arakel to accustom himself to a new life in Soviet Armenia are in vain whilst he suffers from nostalgia. After having a vision one sleepless night, Arakel crosses the Soviet-Turkish border, visits his village ("to visit the tombs of my parents, to kiss the remaining walls of our village church"), meets his old Kurdish friends. After returning back, he's captured by NKVD (Soviet state security) being accused of "spying against the nation" and tragically ends his life in the exile train to Siberia.