This trio of stories begins with "Words," as a young Macedonian monk discovers an Albanian girl hiding in his quarters, and attempts to hide her from a local militia. In the second, "Faces," a London photo-agent struggles with how to tell her husband she's been having an affair with one of her foreign photojournalists. In the third, "Pictures," the photojournalist returns to his Macedonian village and becomes embroiled in centuries-old skirmishes. For these people, as one of them says, "Time never dies ... the circle is not round." Connected in subtle ways, each finds that in the former Yugoslavia, it does not matter whether a person tries to help or stay neutral. Trouble ensues either way.