Suddenly, people in the world start turning into trees. The girl’s father turns into a tree, one day, while he’s driving them, her mother, and her brother. They crash on a bridge but make it out alive. They see a sapling in the driver’s seat. Three months pass. They all drive for the first time, with the mother at the driver’s seat, the father, a sapling, between the siblings. Since the incident, the mother has barely left the house, and the girl goes out to market to shop for groceries, which are less lively than before. Now, they drive to a bridge where they briefly hide away their father during an army inspection. They’re asked questions, searched outside, in fear that they may be Children of Gaia. They successfully pass and are told to alert authorities if they see any suspicious figures.

Before they drive, the president, in an address, tells everyone to incinerate any trees at designated centers. The mother tells the girl to turn off the television. Every so often, she and her family repot the father and take care of him, rather than incinerating him. Meanwhile, scientists can’t find any explanation for why people are turning into trees, though there’s widespread belief that incinerating them will prevent the spread of it. Schools are closed, and everyone is stuck at home. To cope, the brother watches violent footage of death and destruction online, and the mother has become apathetic. Governments fail to seize control after what’s going on, and the Children of Gaia believe that Earth has finally sought her revenge on human beings and have since revoked technology. The family wonders what will happen when the father grows too big.

After miles, the family arrives to the Lagos Arboretum and Botanical Gardens. They have always wanted to go but have never had the time until now. It seems like a normal family thing, the girl thinks, which wasn’t ever them, as they grew up conflicted with each other. They try to get into the arboretum, but it’s locked shut. After some fidgeting, they turn around and leave, but the girl looks around and finds a gap in a wall hidden by vines. They squeeze through it, with the father, and wander around the arboretum alone, savage for the monkeys which swing around its trees. They see signs informing about trees and their ages, and the family points out birds in the sky. Soon enough, they find a place to do it: to dig up the earth and plant the father in it. They do it together, delicately, and before they finish, the mother brings out a picture of them and talks to him quietly, as the two siblings give her space. They then finish planting him, while crying.

At home, they have dinner in their dirtied clothes and share their memories of their father. At night, they all sleep in the same bed, tangled up in each other, like roots.