After months without pay, the already disgruntled crew on a Turkish cargo ship arrives in an Egyptian port and learns that the Port Authority is foreclosing on them. Ordered to anchor offshore, the remaining skeleton crew has their passports seized and must maintain the vessel until its owner’s debts are paid. Tensions quickly arise between the authoritarian Cypriot captain, his devoutly religious second-in-command, an affable cook, and a trio of newcomers to the ship—a pair of druggie ne’er-do-wells and the near-mute, hulking Kurd. As months pass, food and entertainment dwindle, alliances shift, and the men take out their raw frustration on one another.

The global corporations have established cities and agricultural zones in areas where the climate is relatively good. These cities are populated by the elites, while the immigrant masses struggle with hunger and epidemics. For unknown reasons, the city’s agricultural plantations have been hit by a genetic crisis - and, as a result, by massive crop failure. Professor Erol Erin, a seed genetics specialist learns of Cemil Akman, a fellow scientist. Apparently, Cemil wrote a thesis about the recurrent crisis affecting genetically modified seeds - but the work was banned by the corporation..

Basri, 55 year old, every day walks for miles along the tracks working as a railroad watchman. His nagging thought is finding his son. Eighteen years ago, while the boy was studying at the university in Istanbul, the police took him into custody for antigovernment activities. Then, he mysteriously disappeared.