A dead man hangs from the portal of St Paul's Chapel in Damascus. He was a Muslim officer - and he was murdered. Detective Barudi investigates the case clandestinely after the Secret Service takes it away from him, and discovers the murderer's motive: it is a blood feud between two clans, reaching back to the beginnings of the 20th century.

At a hospital in Damascus, Abdel Latif's final wish is to be buried in the family plot near Aleppo - just a two-hour drive away. Bolbol, his youngest son, persuades his estranged brother and sister to accompany him and their father's body to the ancestral village. But Syria is a war zone, and the trials that confront the family on their journey will have enormous consequences for them all.