The destiny of Jean, a boy from Rwanda, determined to live.

Jean has just turned seven when he witnesses, from his attic hiding spot, the murder of his family and all the Tutsis in his village by friends and neighbors. Caught and enslaved by one of the men who killed his family, he is then left for dead and loaded into a truck carrying the bodies of other Tutsis. Throughout it all, Jean struggles... to live! He uses his imagination as a bulwark against pain and madness. His meeting with Espérance, a Hutu girl who hides him, gives him the strength he needs to get to Kigali and escape from Rwanda.