A teenage Ugandan boy, desperately wants to go to school but fears his elders’ rejection of education- symbolised by their “curse on the pen” - will prevent this.

The film shifts between his life tending goats in the dry Northern Uganda pastures, and his first ventures to school- in which he observes a world which could change his future. He also discovers why the elders “cursed the pen”.

However, he realises there are more obstacles- financial and familial- preventing him from attending school. But he resolves not to give up.