Newly divorced Nilgün, a doctor from Istanbul, is sent to a remote small town to practice; where she meets up with long lost friend Havva while treating local prostitutes.
In the last years of the Ottoman Empire, a poor little Anatolian town named Saripinar is hit by a minor earthquake which has neither destroyed nor left it with many casualties. However, a telegraph sent to the central government exaggerates the situation and mentions that the governor of the town has been severely wounded, making the event a nationwide matter.