It's an ordinary morning at nine-year-old Rafiq's school in rural Kashmir. Soldiers of the Kashmir Freedom Fighters raid the village in search of new recruits - they scrawl a line in chalk across the school room wall, and any boy whose height reaches the line will be taken to fight. Rafiq is tall for his age - the first boy to cross the chalkline into a life of brutality and terrorism. This is the story of Rafiq's transformation from child to boy soldier. But his family have not forgotten him; when he can no longer recognize himself, they remember the boy he was, and reach out a hand of redemption as he spirals towards a final act of atrocity.