Set in Jakarta in 1946, Isa, a 35-year-old former fighter and a violinist, is now an elementary school teacher. His service during the war for independence leaves him with a reputation as a seasoned soldier. His trauma, however, leaves him with impotence. Isa lives with his wife, Fatimah, and their adopted son, Salim. He steals notebooks to keep his family afloat since students have stopped coming to the school. The city, after all, is in chaos; abandoned by the President, burned by either the Gurkhas, the British, or the Dutch. Isa helps the revolution with his friend and violin student, Hazil young, handsome, with a fervent spirit to fight. Behind Isa's back, the young man is having an affair with Fatimah. Knowing that Hazil is able to impregnate Fatimah, something he would never be able to do, Isa chooses to pretend not knowing anything and acknowledge the baby that Fatimah bears as his own. Together with Hazil, Isa devises a plan to blow up a movie theater in Senen Market, a gathering place for British Nica officials and their "friends", the Dutch. Their main target is Van Mook, the Governor General of the Dutch Indies, who heartily considers Indonesia as his homeland. The mission ends with betrayals. Hazil gives up all the accomplices' names, and Fatimah leaves Isa. But, eventually, Isa finds his peace. This is a story that shows what war means to ordinary people in a city that is, once upon a time, proclaimed as free.
