When five orphan girls are seen innocently playing with boys on a beach, their scandalized conservative guardians confine them while forced marriages are arranged.

Early summer. In a village in northern Turkey, Lale and her four sisters are walking home from school, playing innocently with some boys. The immorality of their play sets off a scandal that has unexpected consequences. The family home is progressively transformed into a prison; instruction in homemaking replaces school and marriages start being arranged. The five sisters who share a common passion for freedom, find ways of getting around the constraints imposed on them.—Festival de Cannes

An unforgettable glimpse inside the private universe of five sisters whose brief flirtation with, well, flirtation, sets tongues wagging in their small Anatolian village. Conservative relatives shut them off from the world and set to work marrying them off as quickly as they can find each of them a fella, but the girls' bond holds fast against the dark tide.

Sometimes, it only takes a minute to change your life completely. In a small coastal village on the Black Sea, school's out for summer. Free-spirited Lale and her older sisters--Sonay, Selma, Ece, and Nur--whose ages range from 11 to 16, decide to head to the sea, and while fully clothed, innocently frolic on the beach with their male classmates. However, as the orphaned sisters return home, unbeknownst to them that scandalised neighbours have already managed a severe blow to their integrity, suspicion leads to captivity, and suddenly, the house becomes a prison and a wife factory. Now, to avoid the scandal, Uncle Erol has arranged to marry the girls off as quickly as possible. But, when conservatism gets in the way of emancipation, defiance is a way out. Can tradition break the bonds of sisterhood?—Nick Riganas