On Salih's arrival, Mirsad insists Salih joins the family for lunch, where he meets Mirsad's wife Nerma and their young son Vedat. He also meets Nerma's elderly mother Mrs Mevlide, who takes him aside and in private reveals to him that he is Nerma's son. During the war Nerma and other Bosnian female Muslims had taken refuge with an uncle. Serbian paramilitary troops attacked the house and killed Nerma's uncle. Their commander, one Borislav Milić, who was a neighbour well known to the family with an eagle tattooed on his chest, ordered all the troops out and then raped Nerma who was only 15 or 16 at the time. With Nerma pregnant and severely traumatised, Mrs Mevlide arranged to give up baby Salih to the orphanage as Nerma suffered amnesia and had to take chronic medication to manage the trauma of her shattered life.