Nabat and her ailing husband live in a small isolated house far from the nearest village but to which Nabat has to go every couple of days to sell milk from their only cow.
As war approaches ever closer the village is slowly deserted and following her husband's death, Nabat is left all alone to fend for herself.
Although the Azerbaijani Armed Forces have ordered the inhabitants to leave the village, she remains, and each evening lights lamps in some of the abandoned houses and village mosque, which dissuades the enemy forces from occupying it.
Nabat's only company is a gray wolf which she traps one day, but then releases. Spying the wolf later, she asks: "And why do you remain here?".
Later we see why - the wolf has cubs and so she, like Nabat, is keeping the future alive. When the Azeri military decide to re-take the village, which would allow the inhabitants to return, Nabat dies as the first winter snows fall, seated on the bench outside her home.