Georgia, autumn 1991. A willful twelve-year-old city boy, Toma, lives with his grandmother in Tbilisi. He keeps getting into trouble at school, where he refuses to shy away from the bullies who taunt him for his affection for Anana. Then, Toma and his grandmother are visited by Nemo, Toma's father. Toma has no memory of Nemo, as he left when Toma was only two. Nemo has just been released from prison due to a general amnesty in celebration of Georgia's independence. Nemo takes Toma to his ancestral village in the mountains, from where they set out on a hunting trip. Nemo wants to get to know his son and make up for the lost years. He wants to teach Toma the most important thing in life: how to be independent. Toma wants to know why his father was in prison, and bit by bit, Nemo tells him what happened in the mountains a decade ago: When Nemo was a forester, he killed a man. Nemo teaches Toma how to make fire and how to use a hunting rifle. Through ups and downs, Toma slowly starts to feel a connection to his surly father and discovers that he is more like his father than he expected. Just when Toma is about to truly accept his father, he accidentally shoots Nemo in what seems like a hunting accident high up in the mountains. Nemo is dead, and Toma is now burdened with the task of staying alive and taking his father back to the village. Toma drags his father down the snow-covered mountain. He has to fend off wolves, battle snowstorms, and chase away the demons that visit him in his nightmares. Toma eventually takes shelter in a trapping pit, where they are found by villagers. Toma is saved, and he has managed to bring his father's body back to civilization. Back at school, the attitude of his bullies-and Anana-proves that Toma has learned his father's lessons.