In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, the inhabitants of an Armenian village gather around Minas, the shopkeeper, to hear news from the front. He interprets the newspaper’s complex and obscure reports according to his own understanding, while his listeners try to find in them answers about the course of the war and the fate of their loved ones. Through details of everyday village life and understated humor, the narrative reveals people’s naïveté, anxiety, and anticipation, especially the anguish of a mother longing for news of her son.