Korshid is a ten-year-old blind boy who lives with his mother in a tiny apartment in Tajikistan. Because his father has gone to Russia to find work, his mother has taken a job catching fish and young Korshid makes money tuning stringed instruments in the workshoop of a gruff, ill-tempered craftsman. Just as the two are about to be evicted from their apartment for failure to pay rent, the boy is fired from his job and they soon find themselves on the street with only their spirits to guide them.