[1] In 1979 in Charkhi,[2] a village in the Punjab province of Pakistan, Ayesha (a middle-aged widow) lives with her son Saleem, a teenager in love with schoolgirl Zubeida.

The older men in the village are disdainful of their intolerance and puritanism, cynical about Zia's postponement of elections and angry when the activists accuse them of being traitors.

They cajole and intimidate Saleem into attending a political meeting in Rawalpindi, where the speakers exhort the audience to commit themselves to jihad for the creation of an Islamic Pakistani state.

Attracted by their zeal and call to serve Islam and Pakistan, Saleem (who wants to be more than a village farmer) breaks up with Zubeida and becomes estranged from his mother.

Saleem helps build a wall around the girls' school to "protect" them and enforces the closing of village shops during namaaz in line with Zia-ul-Haq's Islamisation, and Ayesha and Zubeida are alarmed by his transformation.

Ayesha meets her Sikh brother at the well but refuses to accompany him, condemning her father for encouraging her to commit suicide and asking how he would feel knowing that she was living as a Muslim.

In the street she sees a bearded Saleem, secretary-general of an Islamist organisation, answering questions about the compatibility of Islamic law with democracy.

The role of Ayesha Khan was earlier offered to veteran Pakistani actress Bushra Ansari who had to reject it to focus on her daughters' studies around the time the movie was being shot.