The story sets at Macedonia FYR during the Bosnian war. Zamira, a young Muslim Albanian girl is being chased by the mob accused as a possible murderer. With the help of an orthodox priest bound by vow of silence she`ll try to evade her persecutors. Meanwhile in London, Aleksandar a  Macedonian FYR war photographer, is having an affair with the married photography editor Anne. Fed up with his job Aleksandar decides to return to his country only to find strife and violence.

With a circular motion of events  Milcho Manchevski narrates three seemingly different stories that round up in the closer of the movie. Before the rain is Manchevski`s first feature film, awarded with a Golden Lion for Best Film in Venice Film Festival 1994,  nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards 1995 as well as many other distinctions.