Together with the other children, Kalyk arrives at his summer camp on the mountain pasture to spend the holidays with his parents. His father Bakaj, the elder of the camp, decides not to send Kalyk back to boarding school so that the boy can support him and his mother in their older years. After a family conflict explodes into violence, the boy gets his way and leaves his parents to spend another school year in the city. The majestically beautiful Kyrgyz mountain pastures, captured seemingly effortlessly in black and white widescreen, become the setting for a collision between tradition and progress, centred on the young generation's will to emancipate themselves.