The film follows a family in transition as they adjust to bewildering gaps in education, outlook, religion and even class among three generations jammed into cramped quarters in
Jakarta. At the head of the family the shiftless Bakti gambles incessantly with his
Siamese fighting fish while his frustrated wife, Sri, runs a small
food stall, and his
orphaned niece, Tari, cares more about obtaining blue contact lenses than preparing for her high school graduation. Tari emerges as the family's star as the tumult of democracy and corruption grip the country. Tari has the possibility that she may be the first in her family to experience higher education. She passes her final examination. With a
mortgage on the home, they finance her university study. Her uncle Bakti quarrels with his wife. He uses holy water for his
fighting fish, and she takes revenge by cooking them. Dwi (Baktis brother) is upset after their mother Rumijah has taught her little grandson Bagus a
Christian prayer since the boy is raised by Dwi as a
Muslim. There is a near fire as the family converts from cooking with oil to cheaper gas. Bakti drags the poor grandmother Rumijah back from life in her ancestral village to take charge of the youngster and expose Tari to traditional values in the run-up to her graduation and application to college. ==Background==