Yekta, 11 years old, is born and still lives in a mysterious, castle-like house, at the shore of the Bosphorus, together with her lame seagull, her spinster aunt, Nukhet Seza, and her grandfather, Sirri, paralyzed and bedridden, following the death of his son and bride. The bedroom of her mother is the place where Yekta takes shelter in, to daydream and hide her secrets. All she knows about her mother is that she had left one day in a little boat on the Bosphorus and that she would never return. One night, Yekta sees her mother go by in a little boat, through the window pane of her mother's room. But no one believes her. Her younger aunt Neyyir, an English-language teacher living on the Burgaz Island, wants her to be registered in the boarding school on the island. She thus aims to get her away from her longing for her mother and from that weird, haunted-like house. But Yekta is unwilling to go the island. One day, just like her mother, she leaves in a little boat and gets offshore. She is found before getting drowned. After a short while she sets off for the island, along with her aunt, Neyyire.