Grossman's telling focuses on three strong women: Vera, 90; her daughter, Nina; and her granddaughter, Gili, who at 39 years old is a filmmaker and a wary consumer of affection. A bitter secret divides each mother-daughter pair, though Gili has been close to her grandmother throughout her life. With Gili making the arrangements, they travel together back to Goli ("the Adriatic Alcatraz"), where Vera was imprisoned, enslaved, and tortured for three years as a young wife, when she refused to betray her husband and denounce him as an enemy of the people. This unlikely journey, documented by Gili's camera, lays bare the intertwining of fear, love, and mercy, and the complex overlapping demands of romantic and parental passion.