Central Asia., 1880's A field botanist stumbles across the rarest of tulip flowers growing in a shaman's garden. She's willing to sell him a bundle of tulip bulbs, but first he must eat one, then make love to her (the side effects are useful, though otherworldly). After arriving in Holland, the valuable bundle goes missing. Convinced a poor, crippled dock worker is the thief, the botanist goes in hot pursuit. But when he fails to return, his son asks the local Constable to investigate. When the Constable meets up with the dock worker's wife and the couple's seemingly simple teenaged daughter a curse is unleased, and the seven people collide in the most intimate and heart-wrenching of ways.