Rufie is a fifteen-year old girl who lives with her grandmother in a mountain village. Her father, Hairedin, has gone to look for work in Turkey, because of the unemployment at home. There has been no word from him for the past three years. Even Rufie's closest relatives begin to say that he has forgotten about her and will not come home. Sympathy for her and silent reproach toward her father makes her to feel isolated and lonely. She decides to cross the border illegally and find her father and prove to everyone that they love each other. Her efforts to get money to pay the smuggler to get her over the border are a supreme trial for her. Overcoming many dangers, Rufie makes a most difficult decision; she cuts off her hair and pretends to be a boy, in order to be accepted in the group. During the difficult winter crossing over the mountains, she meets a boy - the same age as her. He is with his father. Rufie experiences the first tremors of love, but cannot share them since she is a 'boy'. Hairedin, Rufie1s father, is in a group of refugees who traveling back to Bulgaria. The father is coming back now to live with her forever. The two groups pass each other by. Hairedin and Rufie do not recognize each other in the dark.