The president and the rebel leader agree to hold a celebration in the Bonandé village, a night of feasting when the peace agreement will be signed and both soldiers and rebels will lay down their arms. After ten years of atrocities on both sides, the proposed night of reconciliation is a daunting challenge. The Nayak president lost his own son, in a vicious murder that drove his wife half-mad. The walls of the Bonandé village are scarred with murals of murder and mutilation that are echoed in the rebel soldiers' nightmares, and the missing limbs of Bonandé children. Was it on a night like this that the slaughter began? Will the truth bring understanding—or revenge?

Precautions are taken to keep the celebration peaceful. Drums that usually would accompany the dancers are banned, since it was the beating of drums that originally called the soldiers to arms. The feast is prepared and the evening's events are scheduled with care. At first, it seems that the reconciliation will be a success, as the people of the village cautiously welcome the president and the Nayak soldiers. As the evening wears on, the village entertainer, who despises the Nayak rulers, begins to beat the drums. The sound of the drumbeat unlocks ten years of nightmares on both sides, and the night intended to restore hope instead becomes a night of bloodshed.