Thirteen-year-old Alen is growing up in an orphanage in Sarajevo. He dreams of finding his mother, a French war correspondent during the unrest in Yugoslavia – at least that’s what a compassionate carer at the institute claims. Alen and some of the other wards make a little extra money stealing for a local tradesman named Sento. But the situation comes to a head when the new director uncovers Sento’s practices. As a reward for services rendered, Alen wants Sento to get hold of his personal file because it includes his mother’s address. In the end he discovers that the truth is quite different from what he expected.