Fremont 2023

Donya Anaita Wali Zada is an Afghan refugee living in Fremont, California after serving as a translator for the United States Army in Afghanistan. She battles insomnia and a growing sense of loneliness, having been in the United States for eight months.

She spends her days in nearby San Francisco working at a fortune cookie factory run by a warm, outgoing couple—Ricky [Eddie Tang] and his wife Lin [ Jennifer McKay]—while Lin sometimes appears cool or wary toward Donya.

Donya and her co-worker, Joanna [Hilda Schmelling], package the cookies, and their older colleague, Fan [Avis See-tho], writes the fortunes.

The only people Donya interacts with regularly are her neighbors, colleagues, and Aziz, who is the owner of a local Middle Eastern restaurant. One neighbor, Salim [Siddique Ahmed], offers her coffee, which she declines because it might keep her awake.

Salim, knowing that Donya has been on the waitlist for therapy, gives her his therapist appointment card so she can go instead. She is disappointed when the therapist, Dr. Anthony, explains that he cannot prescribe sleeping pills until she attends several therapy sessions.

At work, Donya is tasked with writing fortunes after Fan unexpectedly dies. Though initially excited by the chance, she soon struggles to conjure meaningful fortunes, weighed down by her unhappiness.

As her sessions with Dr. Anthony continue, the root of her insomnia emerges: survivor’s guilt over leaving Kabul and loved ones behind. She was one of three translators on her base and the only one who managed to escape. One translator was killed before his visa could be approved, and another was still waiting for papers when Donya left. Dr. Anthony surmises that her parents might be proud of her for being the sole female translator, but Donya explains she was viewed as a traitor by neighbors, and her family started receiving death threats.

Aziz senses her loneliness and encourages her to try dating. She initially resists, but later confesses to Salim that she longs for romance, even as she worries about bringing happiness to someone who might be targeted by grief back home. Salim echoes the feeling that she should not let fear rule her life and urges her to seize possibilities she cannot control.

Following their talk, Donya writes her phone number on a fortune and places it in a cookie. Lin almost fires her when she discovers the stunt, but Ricky defends Donya and keeps her on.

A text arrives from someone in Bakersfield who says he works at a pottery shop and wants to meet. The person asks Donya to travel to Bakersfield and to ask for “the Deer.” Joanna shares in the excitement, and Donya grows optimistic that someone reached out after her lonely note.

On the way, she stops at an auto repair shop and meets Daniel [Jeremy Allen White], a kind mechanic who runs the shop. They share a clear mutual attraction, though Donya resists a deeper connection because her focus is still on this Bakersfield mystery. When she tries to pay for the coffee he gives her, Daniel refuses, telling her the coffee will be free if she returns.

In Bakersfield, the employee at the pottery shop hands Donya a small deer statue. Lin had asked him to prepare the statue for her office, and he delivers it as promised.

Returning to Fremont, Donya visits Daniel’s shop again and hands him the deer statue. He accepts it with a smile, and the two agree to share another cup of coffee, signaling a tentative, budding connection.