Nghiêm has taken care of her grandson, Niên for the majority of his thirteen years of life, just as Niên has taken care of Nghiêm, especially when her memory began to fail her. Returning home after his job as a sand digger, Niên discovers Nghiêm is nowhere to be found...again. When his usual searches turn up nothing, he journeys from their rural village to increasingly foreign urban landscapes, guided (and at one point misguided) by the locals he meets along the way and the belief that Nghiêm could appear at any moment, anywhere.