In the 1930s, two Dutch young men, Simon and Otto, who volunteered for the British army to fight against Germany, are captured by the Turks at Anafartalar. In the chaos of the war, they drift from place to place in Anatolia with a baby girl they take with them. Simon, who takes on the role of father to the girl they name Julia, is assigned to the construction of the first Turkish airship after the proclamation of the republic in Turkey. Julia is told that her mother was a Turkish woman who died young. World Shuman, who is arrested for theft and sent from Istanbul to do the Dutch's housework and provide information about them to the police as punishment, becomes increasingly attached to Julia and is forced to choose between perpetuating the lie the Dutch have invented about her or returning to the glittering life of Beyoğlu, which she misses so much.