Selim's first view of Europe is a vast, thick carpet of sewage. Swimming through it towards traffickers on the Italian shore, he parts Europes soft defences with his bony chest before collapsing on the sand. Illegally, he is loaded into a truck. Selim is then unloaded in Germany, where he must plead his case for political asylum. Examined by dentists and doctors, he's declared to be about 13 and is assigned a date of birth. The clock starts ticking. Selim has until his 'eighteenth' birthday to find a way to get permanent residency status, or face deportation and imprisonment, torture or death back in Turkey. Fifteen years later in Paris, a registrar receives both an unsettling visitor in her office, and an unsettling book in the post.
