Maia and her teenage daughter Alex live in Montreal. On Christmas Eve, Maia receives a box containing diaries, tapes, and photos she entrusted to a close friend when she left Lebanon. She refuses to open this Pandora's box, but Alex, who is trapped at home due to a snowstorm, can't resist the temptation. She secretly rummages through the box of her mother's memories and learns about her mother's turbulent youth spent in Beirut during the civil war.