Elsa, a nurse from Boston, takes her lucky tube of lipstick and travels to war-torn Afghanistan after 9/11 to help refugees at a small medical clinic. There she becomes involved in a forbidden relationship with a Special Forces soldier. Soon she finds another tube of lipstick in the wake of a bus bombing that leads Elsa into a close friendship with her neighbor Parween. The two women risk everything to save those they love from the Taliban.