Saeed and Nadia, a couple, live in a city that is being overtaken by war. Saeed's mother thinks she sees a former student of hers firing a machine gun at citizens because when the student meets her eye, he turns the gun in the other direction to avoid shooting her. Her husband brushes this notion away, but she feels slightly relieved at the thought that she might have allies on the other side.

Neighborhoods fall to the intruders quickly and the city Saeed's mother once knew is gone. Nadia is estranged from her family after she graduates from university and tells them she wants to live on her own. When she passes by the family's house one day, she finds it deserted and the next time she sees it, it has been completely obliterated by a bomb. She never knows what happened to her family — if they fled or were killed — and continues to live alone.

Nadia's home and the home where Saeed and his parents live are both in government-controlled neighborhoods and are spared the worst of the fighting. She and Saeed had met three months before in an evening class, during the beginning of the conflict. After the stock exchange is assaulted, their class is cancelled and Saeed's boss tearfully announces the closing of his business to his employees. Nadia's office stops giving out checks and everyone stops going to work.

Saeed and Nadia come to view the windows in the city as a border in which death is the most likely to come. Most windows are already broken by bullets and although it would cut down on the risk of glass shrapnel, they do not take out the remaining panes because it is freezing outside. Saaed and his family place furniture against their windows, including Saeed's bed, and Nadia takes similar measures.

Rumors circulate that some doors in the city can take you far away to places without war. Although many say it is nonsense, the citizens begin to stare at their doors differently. When they can go outside, Saeed meets Nadia at her house and asks her to live with him. After Saeed's mother is killed, she accepts, and they sleep on separate piles of blankets.

Saeed's neighborhood falls to violent bomb attacks, but Nadia's presence comforts both him and his father. When militants bang on the door and request ID's, the family is safe because they don't belong to the targeted denomination, but the neighbors upstairs are not so lucky and blood seeps through the ceiling. The violence decreases for a while after, and Saeed's father ventures out to a cousin's house and his wife's grave.

Saeed and Nadia resolve to find a door out of the city and they follow a tip one night to meet a man who demands their money. The interaction is so frightening that Saeed is unsure if they are making a downpayment or being robbed. When they tell Saeed's father, he is silent but hopes it works. Finally, a handwritten note arrives and tells them to wait at a spot the next afternoon. Saeed's father remains behind to be with the memory of his dead wife.

The couple meets an armed man in a crowded abandoned dentist's office. An agent gestures them towards the dark doorway of a supply closet and the passage feels both like dying and being reborn. They find themselves in a public bathroom and embrace. Outside, they're on a deserted beach with English signs and a pale man points them to a refugee camp with hundreds of tents. They find out they are in Mykonos and that the doors to richer destinations are heavily guarded, but there are too many doors to guard and they are hopeful.