Academy Award winning actress Natalie Portman makes her debut as a writer/director with the adaption of the best selling memoir of Israeli author Amos Oz playing the role of Fania. The film begins in the mid-1940s when Amos (Amir Tessler) is eight years old, living with his father Arieh (Gilad Kahana) and mother Fania (Portman) in British Palestine. The years leading up to the creation of the state of Israel are characterized by escalating tensions between Jews and Arabs.