Berlian and her teenage daughter Daya are on the run from political violence. Constantly daydreaming that her absent father will return, young Daya chafes under the stern hand of her mother. Forced to move inland from their seaside home to a desert of constantly shifting sands, the pair settle down to their familiar antagonism. Finally, Daya sees a vaguely familiar face shuffle in from across the wasteland.

The Indonesian society is seen through a middle-aged lady's eyes in her daily encounters with the street children who work and live off the harsh and sleazy world of adults.

In 1912, Javanese activist Omar Said Tjokroaminoto co-founds the Sarekat Islam party to fight injustices of the Dutch East Indies' colonial regime.