Luka is the chief engineer on an under construction railway track, linking Bosnia and Serbia. His wife, Jadranka is a former opera singer who is now prone to attacks of hysteria. Their son Milos has ambitions to play major league football for Partizan Belgrade -so far he has been playing  for a small local team in the middle of nowhere. When the war breaks out, everything turns upside down. Instead of signing up for Partizan Belgrade, Milos is signing up for the army, Jadranka has disappeared with a Hungarian cymbalist and Luka finds himself holding hostage a kidnapped Muslim nurse, Sabaha.