Melisa Erkurt

Between Istanbul's sordid neighborhoods and a destitute border village, close to the city, Hamit, drives back and forth. He works for Ali, a charcoal dealer-cum-human trafficker, carrying charcoal one way and illegal immigrants the other way. Young and meek Mehmet helps the two in their dealings and is usually torn between them during their power struggles. Hamit feels stuck in this desolate village. Being subordinate to Ali and sharing a rundown room with Mehmet is not what he had expected from life. Once, he himself tried to escape, but failed to achieve the 'dream life', which intensifies his frustration. His only comfort is an older woman, Denise, a foreign botanist who works at the local research center. They meet secretly in a cottage by the sea and make love to the crashing sound of the waves.

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…