In Grbavica, Sarajevo, Esma Halilovic raises her preteen daughter Sara alone with many difficulties, working many double shifts.
Every now and then she participates in group therapy with other traumatized Bosnian women who have survived the Balkan War.
Esma needs 200 Euros for Sara's school trip and works hard to raise that amount.
When Sara's teacher tells her that she could travel for free if she can prove that her father was a war hero, she presses her mother to give her the document.
But Esma borrows the money and pays the full price and Sara forces her mother to disclose the truth about her father.