Three interwoven stories of loneliness and isolation that centre around Janan, a woman from Afghanistan who travels to the UK for artificial insemination. Complications arise when William, a medical sciences student working in the clinic switches the donor's semen for his own.
A Russian doctor is invited to work at Afghanistan's top hospital during the war, and sees firsthand the carnage caused by the Islamist mujaheddin as they attempt to overthrow the socialist government.
Elderly Dastaguir and his newly deaf 5-year-old grandson Yassin hitchhike and walk, but mostly walk, as they make their way to the coal mine where Dastaguir's son Murad works. Dastaguir must tell Murad that the rest of their family were all killed in a recent bomb attack.
SHAK is about an Afghan living in Pakistan in extreme poverty. In order to pay for his mother's surgical operation, he finds he has no choice but to sell one of his kidneys. On his way to acquiring this money, he runs into a criminal gang and gets injured in a street fight.
