One night, in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, a battle rages between the govern- ment forces and Tamil separatists fighters. A Sinhalese army soldier cowers alone in his bunker, indiffèrent to the bombardment and slaughter taking place around him. Suddenly a trapped and frightened Tamil woman falls into the bunker. She lets him rape her in order to save her life. After two nights alone with the woman the soldier throws away his gun and deserts the army. He heads back to his village, but she follows him.
When he returns, he finds his village stricken with drought and despair. The people eke out a living by scratching at the scorched earth which yields unwillingly to plough and spade. There are no jobs and little money. Their only hope is that their sons, brothers and husbands will join the army. Then, they can live off the soldiers’ wages, or reap the windfall of the compensation payment if their men are killed in action. The deserter walks into this maelstrom of discontents, unwillingly trailing another woman and thus upsetting the order of things…
