 During the conflict in Kosovo, Adem, a 12 year old ethnic Albanian, escapes with his family from the village of Lubisht after it is burned to the ground by Serb forces. On the morning of April 12, 300 Serb soldiers surround the fugitives from Lubisht camped on the mountain. The fugitives do not try to resist, but, even so, the Serbs shoot 16 people. Adem watches as his holder brother, Cerim, is hit by two bullets and falls to the ground. The Serb carry off another 42 people, including three relatives of Adem s and , then , herd Adem and the remaining inhabitants of the village towards Albania. When the conflicts ends , Adem returns to Lubisht where is re-united with his brother Cerim , who , miraculously , survived the shooting . The villager elect the "resurrected" Cerim to go look for the missing people . Adem wants to go too , because he fears his brother will not return . Cerim is against it , but , in the end , he relents . The two brothers leave together on a hazardous journey that takes them to many cities in Kosovo ( Jakova, Pec , Malishevo etc) ) that have been devastated by the war . They meet may survivors , they discover several mass graves and they commiserate with a host of their fellow countrymen. They were shocked witnesses of vendettas carried out , often for nefarious reasons , against the Serbs : houses are burned down , Orthodox churches are destroyed heaping new despair onto old pain in a never-ending spiral of violence. Spurred on by his own childish illusions, Adem persuades his older brother to continue the search , even though it seemed hopeless from the start . Nobody knows anything about the 42 missing people, who have apparently suffered the same fate as thousands of other Kosovars ignored by international organizations . Finally in Pristina , when they have given up all hope , the brothers discover a bus driver , who was forced at gun point to drive the captives away from Lubisht . Although he fears a reprisal, the driver tell them that his 42 passengers were still alive when they reached a city in Serbia . Cerim decides to go back to the village , but Adem convinces him they should make inquiries in Mitrovica , a Kosovar city that is still under Serb control. The two brothers  journey end on the bridge over Ibar river , guarded by Nato forces, that represent the borderline between the two ethnic groups. As Adem gazes across the so-called " death" bridge , his eyes reflect the suffering of an entire race , with a glimmer of hope for a future in which human common sense will prevail over atrocities.