Plot: Three concurrent but interrelated stories covering four countries on three continents are presented. Just outside the small town of Tazzarine in the Moroccan desert, a goat farmer named Abdullah has just purchased a rifle from his neighbor. The rifle is for his eldest son, pre-teen Ahmed, to shoot jackals who have been killing their goats. However, Abdullah's younger son, Yussef, who in many ways demonstrates older tendencies than his brother, ends up being more natural with the firearm. Fooling around with the rifle, the boys take target at various items, testing its shooting distance. In doing so, Yussef shoots at a tour bus off in the distance. The boys can tell by the actions of the bus that Yussef probably hit it. The two scared boys later learn indirectly that an American tourist was killed on the bus. With this information, the boys have to figure out what to do. The information they receive is incorrect as the shooting victim, Susan Jones, did not die immediately from her gunshot wound to the shoulder, but is seriously wounded. She and her husband Richard Jones were on vacation at the time trying to mend their loving but troubled marriage, their problems largely from not being able to deal with the grief associated with the recent SIDS death of their youngest child, Sam. Richard not only has to figure out how to get Susan the needed medical attention required to save her life, which is difficult as the closest hospital is a two hour drive away, but deal with a bus-load of other passengers who can sympathize with the Jones' plight but are concerned for their own health and safety based partly on speculation that Susan's shooting was a terrorist attack. While Richard and Susan's time away from their home in San Diego is extended, Amelia, their illegal alien Mexican housekeeper, has to extend her care of the Jones' two other children, young adolescents Mike and Debbie. This causes an issue for Amelia as her son Luis is getting married in their hometown just across the border in Mexico and Amelia can't find anyone to sit with the children during the wedding. As such, she decides to bring the children to the wedding, which leads to potential problems as she does not have written consent by Richard or Susan to cross the border with them. Amelia, in large part, is at the mercy of her headstrong nephew, Santiago, her and the children's chauffeur that day. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Chieko Wataya, a deaf teenager, is mourning the recent suicide death of her mother. At the same time, she is reaching her sexual awakening, which she is having problems dealing with, as she is often rejected by boys her own age because of her disability. As such, she seeks out that sexual release with older men in inappropriate ways, this sex which she equates with the love that seems to be now missing from the Wataya household. These issues with Chieko come to a head when the police come looking for her father, for what she believes is their furthering questioning about her mother's death and if it really was suicide.
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