When Sakina seeks a blessing on the day of her firstborn child's naming ceremony, she is instead given a curse. A travelling sheik predicts that her son, Muzamil, is going to die at the age of 20.
A broken Sakina is condemned to mourn her son while he is still alive, a burden her husband couldn´t stand to bear. Muzamil is growing up with the constant loom of death, confined by his mother's limitations. The overprotective Sakina gets persuaded by the elders in their community and allows her son to study the Quran with the other children his age.
In his newly found freedom, Muzamil finds friends, enemies, love, and temptations, though what he truly wants is a sense of the present and the chance of a future.