The story is set in Romania, in the years following the fall of Nicolae Ceaușescu. Young Nelu lives in a remote peasant village. The death of his grandfather marks the end of his youth. The day after his grandfather's funeral (a ceremony preceded, a few hours earlier and in the same church, by his sister's wedding), Nelu travels to Bucharest, the Romanian capital that after the fall of Ceaușescu is going through a tumultuous period of economic development, to find work.