Two asylum seekers, two musical instruments, two philosophies of survival, one bag of snacks. Two young men in a detention centre await news about their cases. One plays the guitar, the other the drums; although they hate each other's taste in music, they've noone else to play with. The guitarist believes in staying hopeful; the drummer believes that hope is useless - it picks you up only to slam you down. One is rejected, the other is released. They share a bag of halal-el-mashakel, a mix of nuts and berries known as 'problem solvers'.
If you insist on sticking your head in the sand, what are you going to do when the tide comes in?
A group of self-obsessed writers at a retreat in the Blue Mountains eagerly awaits the arrival of a famous Arabic poet. When the charming, attractive Nabil shows up they are thrilled - until they realise that he's not the poet they're waiting for, but an asylum seeker who has just escaped from Villawood Detention Centre. Meanwhile, the Minister for Immigration's daughter, an aspiring novelist, is about to arrive at the retreat...