İlyas (Kadir İnanır) is a truck driver from İstanbul who comes to a remote village to work in the construction of a dam. When his truck gets stuck in the muddy dirt road, he comes across Asya (Türkan Şoray), a woman from the village who he nicknames Al Yazmalım ('red scarf'). They fall in love, get married and have a child called Samet. One day İlyas stops to help some stranded bystanders, but in doing so, he is delayed and ends up getting fired. When Asya goes to his boss and pleads for İlyas to be reinstated, İlyas is enraged and hits her, then leaves her to start an affair with his former casual girlfriend Dilek (Hülya Tuğlu). When İlyas realises his mistake, he goes back only to find that Asya and his child have left the house. Asya and Samet are wandering by the road when they hitchhike on the back of a truck with a kind stranger Cemşit (Ahmet Mekin). After Cemşit realises that Asya has nowhere to go, he takes pity on them and offers them food and shelter while İlyas searches desperately for them. Samet becomes increasingly fond of Cemşit and Asya begins to see that Samet thinks of him as a father. Then one day after many years, İlyas suddenly appears and Asya is left to make a choice between him and Cemşit.