Malini is a Tamil girl living in northern Sri Lanka as the civil war comes to its catastrophic end. As Malini and her family are herded by Tamil Tiger cadres towards enclaves where they will act as human shields, her father pushes a mobile phone into her hands and tells her to run off into the forest with her young sister. Malini does as she is told, but before long hears artillery shells exploding. The ruse of the Tamil soldiers hasn't worked; the government forces are shelling the enclave. Malini yearns to be with her parents, but makes the agonising decision to escape with her sister.
With the role of parent thrust upon her, Malini feels that the only way ahead is to travel to her grandfather's village a long way inland. She knows she will have to keep off the highways, stay alert for government troops and the cadres of the LTTG, who would conscript her, perhaps even compel her to fight. But where will the next meal come from? Where will she and her sister find shelter? And so begins Malini's odyssey over mountains and rivers, in search of sanctuary.
