Melina is a young Iranian girl with divorced parents, living with her grandparents. Celebrating her 9th birthday Melina legally comes of age in Iranian society, allowing her to take her custody case to court to get the legal permission to live with her mother.

Melina is an excellent student and as a reward is promised a trip abroad by her mother, but her father refuses to grant the travel permission. Tensions rise high. This challenge of the trip parallels the many struggles Melina lives through daily. On the one hand Melina is forced to deal with her distant father, who is not afraid to physically abuse her. On the other she questions her relationship with her mainly absent mother. 

Melina grows up much too fast having to deal with adult issues. She starts to realize her mother doesn’t want to take her in. Her new husband will not accept Melina and her mother will not leave him for her. Eventually Melina decides not to bring her case to court, knowing it won’t solve her actual problems. Instead, she holds her own trail of her mother in an intimate but hard confrontation during the last act of the film.