An aspiring writer returns to his native village in rural Turkey, where he becomes overwhelmed by his father's debts.

Swollen up by the spring inundation, the river falls down on the lowlands and before eventually throwing rocks and silts in the sea, gathers them here and there in the middle of the river. In several days, even sometimes overnight, in these shoals rather large islands are created. Soil of such an island is rich and fertile. An old man and his young granddaughter decide to grow corn on this island. But soldiers pass by.

Ertugrul, launched in 1863, was a sailing frigate of the Ottoman Navy. While returning from a goodwill voyage from Japan in 1890, she encountered a typhoon off the coast of Wakayama Prefecture, subsequently drifted into a reef and sank. The maritime accident resulted in the loss of 533 sailors, including Admiral Ali Osman Pasha. Only sixty-nine sailors and officers survived and returned home later aboard two Japanese corvettes. The event is still commemorated as a foundation stone of Japanese-Turkish friendship. Wikipedia.

Aydin, a former actor, runs a small hotel in central Anatolia with his young wife Nihal with whom he has a stormy relationship and his sister Necla who is suffering from her recent divorce. In winter as the snow begins to fall, the hotel turns into a shelter but also an inescapable place that fuels their animosities... Written by Cannes Film Festival