Usama travels by taxi toward the Jordan Valley, encounters Abu Muhammad who shares his family's exile history, a Kuwait‑bought watch, and his son Khalid’s torture; the group anticipates a checkpoint, while Usama wrestles with his training‑induced disillusionment and deep yearning for home. Usama is detained at a checkpoint, subjected to a humiliating strip‑search and intensive interrogation by a Polish soldier, recounts his work and family‑reunion history, witnesses abuse of other detainees, and is finally released onto a taxi that returns him to the West Bank. Usama’s return taxi becomes a micro‑cosm of occupation‑era dissent: passengers argue over Israeli‑made cigarettes, “protective tariffs,” and resistance; a fort‑armed woman in her forties challenges a bombastic nationalist, introduces the legend of Zarqa al‑Yamama, and later reappears healed; the barren landscape outside is described, and the vehicle finally stops in the town square. Usama returns to his hometown, reunites emotionally with his mother, learns of family expectations about marriage, visits the ancestral mansion where he encounters his uncle Abu Adil, foreign journalists, and French cameramen discussing occupation‑related employment; he meets cousin Nuwar, discovers Adil’s deteriorating health and the house’s lack of servants, and promises to investigate Adil’s condition. Usama’s mother urges him to take a job on his uncle’s farm and hints at marrying his cousin Nuwar, noting that there are no government or UNRWA positions available; despite his commitment to the resistance, Usama promises to visit the farm, deepening his personal dilemma. Usama goes to his uncle’s abandoned farm, confronts the aging former farmhand Abu Shahada, learns that the farmhands now work in Israel and that the land belongs to a landlord Effendi, experiences the old man’s denial and anger, assaults him, and leaves the orchard in despair. Adil travels with a convoy of Palestinian laborers to Tel Aviv, where a night‑time bus ride reveals their dire economic conditions, intra‑group tensions, and nostalgic grievances; an accident leaves elder worker Abu Sabir gravely injured, and Adile’s desperate attempts at first‑aid expose the lack of legal protections for undocumented laborers. Um Sabir and her husband Abu Sabir grapple with a severe injury (loss of part of his right hand), mounting medical costs for his dialysis machine, and the oppressive economic and political environment; Adil reflects on his own crushing burdens while the family prepares to leave home, invoking folk remedies, religious verses, and references to the broader occupation. Usama meets Nuwar’s friend Lina, learns Adil is still on the farm, listens to Basil’s friends deliver a scathing monologue on the Palestinian education system and emigration, observes Nuwar crying over Salih, and departs the house to look for Adil. Adil, drunk and disoriented, roams the night streets of Nablus with Usama, confronting his personal and collective anguish; he recounts Abu Sabir’s brutal hand injury, the insufficiency of medical care, the oppressive presence of patrol cars, and the endless cycle of suffering and false hopes, while debating the meaning of freedom and hunger with Usama. Usama confronts a bread seller over Hebrew‑stamped, stale bread on a muddy street, then seeks refuge in Haj Abdullah’s grocery where he observes heated debates about inflation, labor exploitation, and political activism, meeting characters such as Basil, Hani, Radwan, and the shopkeeper while learning about the daily pressures on ordinary Palestinians.